INTRODUCTION OF LIGHTING BY COAL-GAS. 19 



It soon became an object of attraction, and, while the novelty lasted, was a 

 fashionable promenade. The lamp-lighters were much startled with the new 

 system, and refused to act, and Mr. Clegg had himself to light the lamps for 

 a few nights. 



The first parish that applied for a contract to have their streets lighted with 

 gas was St. Margaret's, Westminster ; and on the first of April, 1814, the old 

 oil-lamps were removed, and the more brilliant gas-lights substituted in their 

 stead. Hundreds of people used to follow the lamp-lighter in his rounds, to 

 watch his operations. Torches for the purpose of lighting the lamps were 

 afterwards dispensed with, and the hand-lanthorn introduced by Mr. Grafton 

 was substituted. 



The contractors who had supplied the oil-lamps were loud in their com- 

 plaints. One of these, when told by the Board of Guardians that his lamps 

 gave no light, replied that this was not in his contract, which only stated that 

 they were to be lighted from sunset to sunrise. This was literally the case, 

 lighted they were, but light they gave none. 



At the outset it was not easy to overcome the prejudice in favour of the 

 brackets attached to the houses ; it was after much altercation between the 

 Gas Companies and the parish authorities that the present posts were allowed. 

 When the Chartered Gas Company had surmounted the principal difficulties, 

 other Companies began to erect gas-apparatus in different parts of the kingdom, 

 Bristol, Birmingham, Chester, Kidderminster, etc. At the present time 

 there is scarcely a town in Great Britain of any importance that is not lighted 

 with gas. The first retorts erected at Peter Street were much superior to the 

 present mode of setting, as far as regarded the health and comfort of the work- 

 men ; a flue was attached over the mouth-pieces, to convey the smoke and 

 flame directly into the chimney, but this flue being found expensive was aban- 

 doned. The retorts were set two to a fire, one over the other ; this plan required 

 less fuel to carbonize the coal than any since adopted ; but again, it was more 

 expensive, and occupied a greater space than the oven plan adopted by Mr. 

 Rackhouse. It would be superfluous to mention the variations in the shape of 

 retorts, with different numbers in an oven, from three to seven. Every Gas 

 Company have a plan of their own ; and as long as the coal is allowed to be 

 distilled in bulk, the slight variations in shape and number in an oven is of 

 little consequence. 



On the occasion of the illumination for the Peace of June 1814, when the 



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