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X. An Account of the Application of the Gas from Coal to econo - 
mical Purposes. By Mr. William Murdoch. Communicated 
by the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks, Bart. K. B. P. R. S. 
Read February 25, 1808. 
The 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 combus- 
tion of the gas from coal is used upon a very large scale ; the 
apparatus for its production and application having been pre- 
pared by me at the works of Messrs. Boulton, Watt, and Co. 
at Soho. 
The whole of the rooms of this cotton mill, which is, I be- 
lieve, 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 com- 
parison was made consuming at the rate of 4,-1 oths of an ounce 
(175 grains ) of tallow per hour. 
The quantity of light is necessarily liable to some variation, 
from the difficulty of adjusting all the flames, so as to be 
perfectly equal at all times ; but the admirable precision and 
