74 



LtiiHt AND HEAT COMPAKY, 



cnlar attention to it, wntil the papers were sent me by ray 



correspondent, and they now come so late, that I can treat 



the subject only in a cursory manner. The following remarks 



iKWi reqaire no apology to my readers for the freedom with 



which they are made. 



The invention j ^o give light by the gas from coal was many years ago 



known, long done by Lord Dundonald. It was afterwards shewn in public, 



before Mr. anno 1784-, by Diller and others. Mr. Murdoch (see Philos. 



^;;^°;"^^^^'' Journal, XI. 74. for May 1805) extensively applied this 



practice in Cornwall in 1792, and afterwards at Sdho in 179S, 



and since. And many years afterwards, Mr. Winsor takes 



out a patent for this very object. He is not the Jirsl inventor 



as to the public use and exercise thereof, and therefore his 



patent is void by the statute of James I. 



If Mr.Winsor's jj j^j^ Winsor, in his paper intitled Terms and Conditions, 



patent were , . . , . /• ^ i i .i 



iforanewin- 4'C says his patent is vested m tour respectable gentlemen, 



vemion, he whose names, for the respectability of his project, he ought 

 ^^IfaringTfo ^^ ^'^^^ g'^en as well as his own. He proposes, that, instead 

 more ihan five, o/" //ze co-patentees engrossing the whole of their patent privi- 

 leges to themselves, thty will share them with a large and respect- 

 able number of their countrymen. Now as the Letters Patent 

 are merely grants of privileges, it cannot be questioned butthat 

 every one who shall be admitted to any share or interest in 

 the privileges so granted, will become a joint patentee ; and 

 of course, that if that number exceed five, the patent itself 

 will be rendered void, by virtue of the proviso therein con- 

 tained for that purpose. The paper here first mentioned is 

 the basis of subscrij)tion, and does certainly give an equit- 

 able interest in the patent to every one who subscribes, as far 

 as the number five ; and after the admission of the sixth sub- 

 scriber, the patent itself, evert if not otherwise exceptionable, 

 becomes a nullity. 

 There is no jn. Mr. Winsor solicits subscriptions, on the condition that 



hisobuinLf a company shall be established by an act of the legislature, 

 an act of par- — as if the legislature were at his command, or as if an act of 

 hament. parliament could be had as a thing of course. I do not think 



it needful to discuss his calculations of profits, and the statistic 

 inferences he pretends to draw from them. Much as they arc 

 open to objection, I would only ask, whether the legislature is 

 likely to consent that he and his subscribers shalt levy upon 

 tl»e nation an annual interest of 5751. for every 5l. subscrip- 



