12 HISTORICAL SKETCH OK THE 



convenience and danger resulting from the sparks and frequent snuffing of candles, is a 

 circumstance of material importance, as tending to diminish the hazard of fire, to which 

 cotton-mills are known to be much exposed. 



" The above particulars, it is conceived, contain such information as may tend to illus- 

 trate the general advantages attending the use of the gas-light : but, nevertheless, the 

 Royal Society may perhaps not deem it uninteresting to be apprized of the circumstances 

 which generally gave rise in my mind to its application as an economical substitute for 

 oils and tallow. 



" It is now nearly sixteen years since, in a course of experiments I was making at 

 Redruth, in Cornwall, upon the quantities and qualities of the gases produced by di- 

 stillation from different mineral and vegetable substances, I was induced, by some observa- 

 tions I had previously made upon the burning of coal, to try the combustible property 

 of the gases produced from it, as well as from peat, wood and other inflammable sub- 

 stances ; and being struck with the great quantities of gas which they afforded, as well as 

 with the brilliancy of the light and the facility of its production, I instituted several ex- 

 periments with a view of ascertaining the cost at which it might be obtained, compared 

 with that of equal quantities of light yielded by oils and tallow. 



" My apparatus consisted of an iron retort with turned copper and iron tubes, through 

 which the gas was conducted to a considerable distance, and there, as well as at interme- 

 diate points, was burned through apertures of various forms and dimensions. The expe- 

 riments were made upon coal of different qualities, which I procured from distant parts of 

 the kingdom, for the purpose of ascertaining which would give the most economical re- 

 sults. The gas was also washed with water, and other means were employed to purify it. 



"In the year 1798, I removed from Cornwall to Messrs. Boulton, Watt and Co.'s 

 works for the manufactory of steam-engines, at the Soho Foundry, and there I constructed 

 an apparatus upon a larger scale, which during many successive nights was applied to 

 the lighting of their principal building, and various new methods were practised of wash- 

 ing and purifying the gas. These experiments were continued, with some interruptions, 

 until the peace of 1802, when a public display of this light was made by me in the 

 illumination of Mr. Boulton's manufactory at Soho upon that occasion. 



" Since that period I have, under the sanction of Messrs. Boulton, Watt and Co., ex- 

 tended the apparatus at Soho Foundry, so as to give light to all the principal shops, 

 where it is in regular use, to the exclusion of other artificial light ; but I have preferred 

 giving the results of Messrs. Phillips and Lee's apparatus, both on account of its greater 

 extent, and the greater uniformity of the lights, which rendered the comparison with 

 candles less difficult. At the time I commenced my experiments I was certainly unac- 

 quainted with the circumstance of the gas from coal having been observed by others to be 

 capable of combustion, but am since informed, that the current of gas escaping from Lord 

 Dundonald's tar ovens had been frequently fired ; and I find that Dr. Clayton, in a paper 

 in Volume XII. of the Transactions of the Royal Society, so long ago as the year 1739, 



