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XVJII. An Account of the Application of the Gas from Coal 

 to (Economical Purposes. By Mr. William Murdoch, 

 Communicated by the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks, 

 Bart. K.B.P.R.S.* 



JL he facts and results intended to be communicated in this 

 paper, are founded upon observations made, during the pre- 

 sent winter, at the cotton-manufactory of Messrs. Philips 

 and Lee at Manchester, where the light obtained by the 

 combustion of the gas from coal is used ( upon a very large 

 scale; the apparatus for its production and application 

 having been prepared by me at the works of Messrs. Boul- 

 ton, Watt, and Co., at Soho. 



The whole of the rooms of this cotton-mill, which is, I 

 believe, the most extensive in the united kingdom, as well 

 as its counting-houses and store-rooms,, and the adjacent 

 dwelling-house of Mr. Lee, are lighted with the gas from 

 coal. The total quantity of light used during the hours of 

 burning, has been ascertained, by a comparison of shadows, 

 to be about equal to the light which 2500 mould candles of 

 six in the pound would give ; each of the candles, with 

 which the comparison was made, consuming at the rate of 

 4-lOths of an ounce (175 grains) of tallow per hour. 



The quantity of light is necessarily liable to some varia- 

 tion, from the difficulty of adjusting all the flames, so as 

 to be perfectly equal at all times ; but the admirable pre- 

 cision and exactness with which the business of this mill is 

 conducted, afforded as excellent an opportunity of making 

 the comparative trials I had in view, as is perhaps likely to 

 be ever obtained in general practice. And the experiments 

 being made upon so large a scale, and for a considerable 

 period of time, may, I think, be assumed as a sufficiently- 

 accurate standard for determining the advantages to be ex- 

 pected from the use of the gas lights under favourable cir- 

 cumstances. 



It is not my intention, in the present paper, to enter into 



* From Philosophical Transactions for 1808, Part I. 

 Vol. 32. No. 126. Nov, 1808. H a par- 



