The Origins of Gaslight Technology in Eighteenth-Century Pneumatic Chemistry

Summary

The interaction between science and technology in the Industrial Revolution has been debated by various authors over the years. Most recently, Ursula Klein has described eighteenth-century chemistry as an interconnected system of science and technology because of the inherently productive nature of chemical experimentation. The technology used in the nineteenth gaslight industry follows the pattern that Klein describes: gaslight technology was derived from the academic studies of eighteenth-century pneumatic chemists. The foundation of the technology in science included first, a knowledge about inflammable gases and their properties, and second, various instruments and processes developed for the study of gases. Although inflammable exhalations had been known long before the eighteenth-century, it was only with the work of Priestley, Volta, Berthollet, and other chemists that their properties and characteristics, including the multiplicity of species of inflammable gases, became known. The instruments and processes of pneumatic chemistry that were incorporated into gaslight apparatus were the retort, the pneumatic trough, lime purification of carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulphide, and finally the gasometer. The first important instance of lighting with inflammable gases, that of J. P. Minckelers in 1785, demonstrates that pneumatic chemistry formed part of an interconnected network of science and technology, as does the work of other early gaslight pioneers such as Philippe Lebon, Zachäus Winzler, and William Murdoch. Lebon came to gaslight through the investigation of distillation processes, and later thought of using the inflammable gas produced in this way. Zachäus Winzler, an Austrian chemist, recreated Lebon's thermolamp from the instruments in his laboratory after hearing descriptions of it. In the case of William Murdoch, he incorporated the pneumatic apparatus that James Watt had built for Thomas Beddoes.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Bert Hall, Chris Hamlin, and Janis Langins for their comments on my Ph.D. thesis. I would also like to thank Marco Beretta and the referees for their encouraging and helpful suggestions, and Trevor Levere whose hints helped me structure this paper.

Notes

¹See A. E. Musson and Eric Robinson, Science and Technology in the Industrial Revolution (Toronto, 1969). A. Rupert Hall, ‘What Did the Industrial Revolution in Britain Owe to Science?’, in Historical Perspectives: Studies in English Thought and Society, in Honour of J. H. Plumb, ed. Neil McKendrick (London, 1974). Archibald Clow and Nan L. Clow, The Chemical Revolution: a Contribution to Social Technology (Freeport, NY, 1952). Charles C. Gillispie, ‘The Natural History of Industry’, Isis, 48, no. 4 (1957), 398–407. Charles C. Gillispie, ‘The Discovery of the Leblanc Process’, Isis, 48, no. 2 (1957), 152–70. David S. Landes, The Unbound Prometheus: Technological Change and Industrial Development in Western Europe from 1750 to the Present, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, 2003). Larry Stewart, The Rise of Public Science: Rhetoric, Technology, and Natural Philosophy in Newtonian Britain (New York, 1992). Margaret C. Jacob and Larry Stewart, Practical Matter: Newton's Science in the Service of Industry and Empire, 1687–1851 (Cambridge, MA, 2004). Margaret C. Jacob, Scientific Culture and the Making of the Industrial West (Oxford, 1997). Joel Mokyr, The Gifts of Athena: Historical Origins of the Knowledge Economy (Princeton, NJ, 2002).

²John Graham Smith, The Origins and Early Development of the Heavy Chemical Industry in France (Oxford, 1979). Ulrich Wengenroth, ‘Science, Technology, and Industry’, in From Natural Philosophy to the Sciences: Writing the History of Nineteenth-Century Science, ed. David Cahan (Chicago, 2003), 221–53.

³Ursula Klein, ‘Technoscience avant la lettre’, Perspectives on Science, 13, no. 2 (2005). See also E. Homburg, ‘The Rise of Analytical Chemistry and Its Consequences for the Development of the German Chemical Profession (1780–1860)’ Ambix, 46, no. 1 (1999), 1–32 (2–9).

⁴For some early descriptions of gas plants, see Frederick Christian Accum, A Practical Treatise on Gas-Light (London, 1815) and subsequent editions. Thomas S. Peckston, The Theory and Practice of Gas-Lighting (London, 1819). Henry Creighton, ‘Gas-Lights’, in Encyclopaedia Britannica, or A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences and Miscellaneous Literature. Supplement to the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Editions (Edinburgh, 1824), IV, part 2, 448–62.

⁵As early as 1672, Robert Boyle had dissolved iron in acid to produce an inflammable air. See Boyle, Tracts Written by the Honourable Robert Boyle Containing New Experiments, Touching the Relation Betwixt Flame and Air (London, 1672), 63–66. See also John Maud and James Luther. ‘A Chemical Experiment by Mr. John Maud, Serving to Illustrate the Phoenomenon of the Inflammable Air Shewn to the Royal Society by Sir James Lowther, Bart As Described in Philosoph. Transact. Numb. 429’, Philosophical Transactions, 39 (1736), 282–85.

⁶Henry Cavendish, ‘Three Papers, Containing Experiments on Factitious Air’, Philosophical Transactions, 56 (1766), 141–84.

⁷Roderick W. Home, ‘Volta's English Connections’, In Nuova Voltiana: Studies on Volta and his times Vol. 1, edited by Fabio Bevilacqua and Lucio Fregonese, 115–32. (Milan, 2000), 121.

⁸A first edition was published in 1776, with a larger edition in 1777 Volta, Lettere sull'aria infiammabile (Milan, 1777). The date given in the introduction is 15 January 1777. See also Georgia Santangelo and Carla Garbarino. ‘General Bibliography on Alessandro Volta’, In Nuova Voltiana: Studies on Volta and His Times, Vol. 4, edited by Fabio Bevilacqua and Lucio Fregonese, 117–80 (Milan, 2000), 120.

⁹Volta (note 8), 26–7.

¹⁰See Frederic Lawrence Holmes, ‘Phlogiston in the Air’, in Nuova Voltiana: Studies on Volta and His Times, Vol. 2, edited by Fabio Bevilacqua and Lucio Fregonese, 73–113 (Milan, 2000), 91, for a discussion of Volta's views on the nature of inflammable air.

¹¹See Dietrich to Volta 23 March 1778, in Volta Epistolario di Alessandro Volta (Bologna, 1949), I, 229–30. On Dietrich see C. E. Perrin, ‘A Lost Identity: Philippe Frederic, Baron de Dietrich (1748–1793).’ Isis, 73, no. 4 (1982), 545–51 (549).

¹²Perrin (note 11), 548. Lavoisier, ‘Sur l'air inflammable’ (1778) reprinted in Oeuvres (Paris, 1865), V, 248–55 (250–1). Dietrich to Volta 23 March 1778, Volta Epistolario (note 11), I, 229–30.

¹³Lavoisier (note 12). There were two papers on subject published in Fourcroy, Mémoires et observations de chimie (Paris, 1784). These are ‘Premier mémoire sur le gaz inflammable des marais’ 151–66, and ‘Second mémoire sur le gaz inflammable des marais’, 167–89.

¹⁴Berthollet. ‘Suite des recherches sur la nature des substances animales, et sur leurs rapports avec les substances végétables’ Histoire de l'Académie royale des sciences (1785 [1788]), 331–49 (344–5).

¹⁵Guyton de Morveau et al., Méthode de nomenclature chimique (Paris, 1787), 123.

¹⁶Lavoisier. Traité élémentaire de chimie (Paris, 1789), reprint (note 12), I, 272.

¹⁷Mi Gyung Kim, ‘The analytic ideal of chemical elements: Robert Boyle and the French didactic tradition of chemistry’, Science in Context, 14, no. 3 (2001), 361–95 (370). Ferenc Szabadváry, History of Analytical Chemistry, 1st English ed. (Oxford, 1966).

¹⁸Tiberius Cavallo. A Treatise on the Nature and Properties of Air, and Other Permanently Elastic Fluids: to Which Is Prefixed, an Introduction to Chymistry (London, 1781), 300.

¹⁹For a complete discussion on Hales’ use of the pneumatic trough and its subsequent history, see John Parascandola and Aaron J. Ihde, ‘History of the Pneumatic Trough’, Isis 60, no. 3 (1969), 351–61.

²⁰For a thorough history of Black's discoveries, see Henry Guerlac, ‘Joseph Black and Fixed Air: a Bicentenary Retrospective, with Some New or Little Known Material’, Isis 48, no. 2 (1957), 124–51, and Guerlac, ‘Joseph Black and Fixed Air: Part II’, Isis, 48, no. 4 (1957), 433–56.

²¹Carl Wilhelm Scheele, Chemische Abhandlung von der Luft und dem Feuer (Upsala, 1777), 149. Partington, A History of Chemistry (London/New York, 1961), III, 229.

²²Jean Baptiste Meusnier, ‘Description d'un appareil propre a manoeuvrer différentes espèces d'airs’ Histoire de l'Académie royale des sciences (1782 [1785]), 466–75.

²³For more details, see Trevor Levere, ‘Lavoisier's gasometer and others: research, control, and dissemination’, in Lavoisier in Perspective, ed. Marco Beretta (Munich, 2005), 53–67.

²⁴The Dumotiez brothers advertised it in 1795. See also Frederick Accum, ‘Description of an Improved Gazometer’, The Repertory of Arts, Manufactures, and Agriculture 2nd series, 5 (1804), 179–82 (179). For a contemporary history of the gasometer see Ludwig Gilbert, ‘Von den veschiedenen Gasmessern, und Beschreibung des von Seguin erfundenen Gazometers’, Annalen der Physik 2, no. 2 (1799), 185–93, and Friedrich Parrot, Ueber Gasometrie nebst einigen Versuchen über die Verschiebbarkeit der Gase (Dorpat 1811).

²⁵Jean-Antoine-Claude Chaptal, Elements of Chemistry, trans. William Nicholson (London, 1791), I, 200. ‘Chymistry’, in The New Encyclopædia; or, Modern Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, ed. William Henry Hall and Thomas Augustus Lloyd (London, 1797).

²⁶Gilbert (note 24), 186–7.

²⁷Martinus van Marum, ‘Lettre à Berthollet, contentant la description d'un gazomètre’, Annales de chimie, 12 (1792), 113–40.

²⁸See Paolo Brenni, ‘Volta's Electric Lighter and Its Improvements: the Birth, Life and Death of a Peculiar Scientific Apparatus Which Became the First Electric Household Appliance’ in From the Itinerant Lecturers of the Eighteenth-century to Popularizing Physics in the 21st Century—Exploring the Relationship Between Learning and Entertainment (Pognana sul Lario, 2003). Johann Georg Krünitz, ‘Lampe’, in Oekonomische-technologische Encyclopädie (Berlin, 1793), LIX, 274–343.

²⁹Mi Gyung Kim, ‘‘Public’ Science: Hydrogen Balloons and Lavoisier's Decomposition of Water’, Annals of Science, 63, no. 3 (2006), 291–318 (299).

³⁰Mi Gyung Kim, ‘‘Public’ Science: Hydrogen Balloons and Lavoisier's Decomposition of Water’, Annals of Science, 63, no. 3 (2006), 291–318 305.

³¹See for example, Lapostolle, ‘Lettre de M. Lapostolle aux auteurs du journal’, Journal de Paris, 24 January 1784, 106–7.

³²The name is frequently misspelt ‘Minkelers’. This is due to the printer's omission of the ‘c’ when his paper on inflammable airs was printed. See P. A. Th. M. Jaspers and J. Roegiers, ‘Le mémoire sur l'air inflammable de J. P. Minckelers (1748–1824)’, Lias, 10, no. 2 (1983), 217–52 (219). For more details about Minckelers in the context of the ballooning craze, see Peter Austerfield, ‘The Development of Large-Scale Production and Utilisation of Lighter-Than-Air Gases’, unpublished Ph.D. thesis (University of London, 1981) 138–60, and Jaspers and Roegiers above.

³³Jean Pierre Minckelers, Mémoire sur l'air inflammable tiré de différentes substances (Louvain, 1784).

³⁴P. A. Th. M. Jaspers, J.P. Minckelers, 1748–1824 (Maastricht, 1983), 42.

³⁵Charles Morren, ‘Notice sur la vie et les travaux de Jean Pierre Minkelers’, Annuaire de l'Académie royale des sciences et belles-letres de Bruxelles, 5 (1839), 79–91 (82). Charles Morren, ‘Invention de l’éclairage au gas’, Bulletins de l'Académie royale des sciences, des lettres et des beaux-arts de Belgique, 2 (1835), 162.

³⁶Jaspers (note 34), 47–8.

³⁷Austerfield (note 32), 395, citing Eg Adry, Un siècle d’éclairage, 1824–1924 (Anvers, 1925).

³⁸Barthélemy Faujas-de-Saint-Fond, Description des expériences de la machine aérostatique de Mm. de Montgolfier, et de celles auxquelles cette découverte a donné lieu (Paris, 1783–4), II, 244. Minckelers (note 33), 12.

³⁹François Veillerette, Philippe Lebon, ou, l'homme aux mains de lumière (Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises, 1987), 95.

⁴⁰François Veillerette, Philippe Lebon, ou, l'homme aux mains de lumière (Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises, 1987), 103–4.

⁴¹François Veillerette, Philippe Lebon, ou, l'homme aux mains de lumière (Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises, 1987), 134.

⁴²‘De toutes les opérations de chimie, la distillation est sans doute celle dont les usages sont les plus étendus et les plus précieux’. Quoted in Jean-Pierre Williot, Naissance d'un service public: le gaz à Paris (Paris, 1999), 15. Veillerette (note 39), 135.

⁴³Title of paper given in Veillerette (note 39), 138. Philippe Lebon, Thermolampes, ou poêles qui chauffent, éclairent avec économie, et offrent, avec plusiers produits precieux, une force motrice applicable à toute éspèce de machines (Paris, 1801), 1.

⁴⁴Patent to Philippe Lebon, ‘Moyens nouveaux d'employer les combustibles plus utilement & à la chaleur & à la lumière, & d'en receuillir leur sous-produits’ (1799) in René Masse Le gaz (Paris, 1914), Annexe I, 234–47.

⁴⁵Patent to Philippe Lebon, ‘Moyens nouveaux d'employer les combustibles plus utilement & à la chaleur & à la lumière, & d'en receuillir leur sous-produits’ (1799) in René Masse Le gaz (Paris, 1914), Annexe I, 234.

⁴⁶Patent to Lebon, ‘Additions’ (1801) in Masse (note 44), 240.

⁴⁷Lebon (note 43), 3.

⁴⁸Jean Baptiste Charles Marchais, ‘Note sur la 1ere expérience du thermolampe’, in Mémoires des sociétés savantes et litéraires de la république française (Paris, 1801), 384–87 (384).

⁴⁹‘Cependant le plus grand nombre des applications des thermolampes devrait avoir pour objet de chauffer et d’éclairer, je vais les considérer particulièrement sous ce point de vue’ Lebon (note 46), 244.

⁵⁰‘c'est ainsi que plusieurs personnes se plaisent à nommer mon appareil’ ‘Cependant le plus grand nombre des applications des thermolampes devrait avoir pour objet de chauffer et d’éclairer, je vais les considérer particulièrement sous ce point de vue’ Lebon (note 46), 240.

⁵¹Veillerette (note 39), 164–5.

⁵²Lebon (note 46), 246.

⁵³Lebon (note 46), 243.

⁵⁴Williot (note 42), 18.

⁵⁵‘Lebons Thermolampen. Absonderung und Waschung der brennbaren Luft. Flamme in der Krystallkugel. Uebrige Zurichtungen und Wirkungen’ London und Paris 8 (1801), 206–13. The footnote in Johan Wagner, ‘Versuche über Lebons Thermolampen, und deren Beschreibung’, Annalen der Physik 10, no. 4 (1802), 491–9, quotes at some length from German journals describing both Lebon's apparatus and his demonstrations. See also Williot (note 42), 21.

⁵⁶Philippe Lebon, ‘Thermolampes’, Journal général de la littérature de France: ou répertoire méthodique des livres nouveaux, cartes géographiques, estampes et oeuvres de musique 4, no. 8 (1801), 253.

⁵⁷Francis William Blagdon, Paris As It Was and As It Is; or, a Sketch of the French Capital, Illustrative of the Effects of the Revolution, with Respect to Sciences, Literature, Arts, Religion, Education, Manners, and Amusements; Comprising Also a Correct Account of the Most Remarkable National Establishments and Public Buildings (London, 1803), I, 23.

⁵⁸‘Die grösste Unbequemlichkeit dieser Thermolampes (wenigstens jetzt noch) ist der unangenehme Geruch, den sie verbreiten’ ‘Lebons Thermolampen’ (note 55), 211. See also Wagner (note 55), 497. ‘Versuch mit der Thermo-Lampe’, Magazin der Handels- und Gewerbskunde, 1 (1803), 514–5. Williot (note 42), 22, footnote 36.

⁵⁹Veillerette (note 39), 182. Veillerette says that it was never even opened.

⁶⁰Zachäeus Andr Winzler, Die thermolampe in Deutschland: oder, vollständige, sowohl theoretisch- als praktische Anleitung, den ursprunglich in Frankreich erfundenen, nun aber auch in Deutschland entdekten universal- Leucht- Heiz- Koch- Sud- Destillir- und Sparoven zu errichten (Brünn, 1803), 34. For a specific sale, see p. 25

⁶¹Veillerette (note 39), 191.

⁶²Veillerette (note 39), 206–9.

⁶³An advertisement from Lebon's wife: ‘Avis—Thermolampe’, Mercure de France, 48, no. 74 (1811), 240.

⁶⁴For some discussion on the heroic view, see Nathan Rosenberg, Inside the Black Box: Technology and Economics (New York, 1982), 48ff. See also David Philip Miller, Discovering Water: James Watt, Henry Cavendish, and the Nineteenth-century ‘Water Controversy (Aldershot, 2004), 11–26.

⁶⁵Fourcroy, Leçons élémentaires d'histoire naturelle et de chimie (Paris, 1782), I, 407.

⁶⁶‘Dass in Deutchland, wie alles Neue, so auch die Thermolampe, gleich anfangs ihre grossen Lobpreiser und mehr als Einen Eiferer fand, der gern alle Oefen umgerissen und sie in Thermolampen verwandelt hätte, ist bekannt’. Ludwig Gilbert, ‘Zusatz des Herausbegers. Einige Erfahrungem enthaltend, über die Thermolampe, und deren Answendungen’, Annalen der Physik, 22, no. 1 (1806), 83–95 (83–4).

⁶⁷One longstanding source of confusion in the historiography of the early gas industry is the existence of three people with similar names, Zachäus (or Zacharias) Andreas Winzler, Johannes Wenzler, who built a small thermolamp in 1802, and Friedrich Winzer, who went on to promote the first successful gas company on London and anglicized his name to Frederick Winsor.

⁶⁸Much of the following biographical information comes from ‘Winzler, Zachäus Andr.’, in Oesterreichische National-Encyklopädie, oder, Alphabetische Darlegung der wissenswürdigsten Eigenthümlichkeiten des österreichischen Kaiserthumes, ed. Johann Jakob Heinricch Czikann and Franz Gräffer (Vienna, 1835) and Helma HalvaDenk, ‘Bedeutende Südmährer’, Offizielle Homepage des Südmährischen Landschaftsrats (1991), http://www.suedmaehren.eu.

⁶⁹‘Winzler, Zachäus Andr.’ (note 68), 165.

⁷⁰Georg Christoph Hamberger, ‘Winzler (Zachäus Andreas)’, in Das gelehrte Teutschland oder Lexikon der jetzt lebenden Teutschen Schriftsteller, ed. Johann Samuel Ersch (Lemgo, 1827) 633. HalvaDenk (note 68).

⁷¹Winzler (note 60), 13. The translation was done by Johann Michael Daisenberger, who made a thermolamp himself. See p. 4, 172.

⁷²Winzler (note 60), 13. The translation was done by Johann Michael Daisenberger, who made a thermolamp himself. See p. 4, 12–3.

⁷³‘Auszüge aus Briefen und ein Paar Zeitungsartikel’, Annalen der Physik, 10, no. 4 (1802), 496–7, footnote contains a very brief description. ‘Lebons Thermolampen’ (note 55) has a plate with simple drawings.

⁷⁴‘Meine Vorkenntniße in der Physik und neuern Chemie, welche letztere ganz vorzüglich mein Lieblingsfach ist, kamen mir hierbey sehr zu statten’, Winzler (note 60), 13.

⁷⁵He cites, for example, Lavoisier, Fourcroy, Guyton, Chaptal, Nicholson, Scheele, Priestley, Hales, Volta, as well as secondary figures like Minckelers, Leutmann, Göttling, Lampadius, Nordenschöld, etc.

⁷⁶Winzler knew that pure carbon had resisted decomposition despite all the best efforts of chemists. See Winzler (note 60), 131–2. and especially p. 122–3.

⁷⁷Winzler knew that pure carbon had resisted decomposition despite all the best efforts of chemists. See Winzler (note 60), 131–2. and especially, 144.

⁷⁸Winzler knew that pure carbon had resisted decomposition despite all the best efforts of chemists. See Winzler (note 60), 131–2. and especially, 145.

⁷⁹Winzler knew that pure carbon had resisted decomposition despite all the best efforts of chemists. See Winzler (note 60), 131–2. and especially, 84–5.

⁸⁰‘ypfer’: A graphite crucible made in Passau. See Jöns Jacob Berzelius Lehrbuch der Chemie (Dresden, 1841), X, 521.

⁸¹‘Ich wählte eine gewöhnliche ypfer Retorte; füllte dieselbe mit würflicht geschnittenem weichen holze an, so viel sie nur fassen konnte; legte sie dann in das freye Feuer eines Destillirofens; bedeckte solchen mit seiner Kuppel; steckte eine abwärts gebogene Röhre von gut gelötheten Metall an die Mündung der Retorte; senkte diese Röhre einige Zoll tief in eine leere Woulfische Flasche; verband solche durch eine Communicationsröhre von Glas mit einem hölzernen Fäßgen, welches zuvor ganz mit reinem Wasser gefüllte worden war; lutirte Alles mit feuerfestem Kütt; gab sodenn gradweise Feuer, und hatte das Vergnügen, meinen theoretischen Entwurf durch den Erfolg vollkommen bestätiget zu sehen’. Winzler (note 60), 15–16.

⁸²Peter Woulfe, ‘Experiments on the distillation of acids, volatile alkalies, &c.’ Philosophical transactions, 57 (1767), 517–36.

⁸³Girard, ‘The Apparatus of Woulfe improved, so as not to require luting’, A Journal of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry and the Arts, 4 (1801), 41–2. The original article was Girard, ‘Appareils à la manière de Wolf et sans luts, par le cit. Girard’, Annales de chimie, 32 (1798), 283.

⁸⁴Winzler (note 60), 77.

⁸⁵Winzler (note 60), 78.

⁸⁶Winzler (note 60), 80–81.

⁸⁷Winzler (note 60), 38. He also refers to Lavoisier's on p. 149.

⁸⁸Winzler (note 60), 81.

⁸⁹Winzler (note 60), 82.

⁹⁰Winzler (note 60), 38.

⁹¹Winzler (note 60), 25.

⁹²Winzler (note 60), 20.

⁹³‘Winzler, Zachäus Andr..’ (note 68). ‘Winzler, Zachäus Andreas’, in Biographisches Lexikon des Kaisertums Österreich: enthaltend die Lebensskizzen der denkwürdigen Personen, welche 1750 bis 1850 gelebt haben, ed. Constant von Wurzbach (Vienna, 1889), vol. 57, 105–8, states that it was the house of the Count Festetics.

⁹⁴Winzler (note 60), 21.

⁹⁵Winzler (note 60), 38.

⁹⁶Winzler (note 60), 39.

⁹⁷‘Specification of the Patent granted to Mr. William Murdock, of Redruth, in the county of Cornwall, gentleman for a method of making (from the same materials, and by processes entirely new,) copperas, vitriol, and different sorts of dye or dying stuff, paints, and colours ; and also a composition for preserving the bottoms of all kinds of vessels, and all wood required to be immersed in water, from worms, weeds, barnacles, and every other foulness which usually does or may adhere thereto. Dated 2 May 1791’, The Repertory of Arts and Manufactures 1st series 9 (1798), 97–99.

⁹⁸John Charles Griffiths, The Third Man: The Life and Times of William Murdoch, 1754–1839, the Inventor of Gas Lighting (London, 1992), 224–25.

⁹⁹Cornish word for pyrite.

¹⁰⁰William Henry, ‘Experiments on the gases obtained by the destructive distillation of pit coal, &c., with a view to the theory of their combustion when employed as sources of artificial light’, A Journal of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry and the Arts, 11 (1805), 65–74 (73), basically corroborates this.

¹⁰¹William Murdoch, ‘An account of the application of the gas from coal to economical purposes’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 98 (1808), 124–32 (132).

¹⁰²William Murdoch, ‘An account of the application of the gas from coal to economical purposes’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 98 (1808): 131.

¹⁰³‘Select Committee on Gas-Light and Coke Company's Bill to Incorporate Persons for Procuring Coke, Oil, Tar, Pitch, Ammoniacal Liquor and Inflammable Air from Coal: Minutes of Evidence’ in House of Commons Parliamentary Papers III.315 (1809), 51.

¹⁰⁴Clow (note 1), 417.

¹⁰⁵Boulton & Watt archives in the Birmingham Central Library (hereafter BWA) MS 3147/3/479 #1, from Adam Matthew publishers, Industrial Revolution Series, hereafter AM-IR, series 1 part 14 reel 273.

¹⁰⁶Henry (note 100), 74.

¹⁰⁷PP (note 103), 51.

¹⁰⁸James Watt jr to Matthew Robinson Boulton 4 April 1799, BWA MS 3147/47/3/48

¹⁰⁹Gregory Watt to James Watt jr, 8 November 1801, BWA James Watt Papers C2/10, AM-IR series 3 part 2 reel 40.

¹¹⁰James Watt jr to Gregory Watt, date unclear, but it is located in the letter book before a letter dated 14 December 1801. BWA James Watt Papers Letter Book /7, AM-IR series 3 part 2 reel 39.

¹¹¹BWA, Matthew Boulton Correspondence, Soho House MS 1682, AM-IR series 1 part 4 reel 57.

¹¹²Creighton (note 4), 449.

¹¹³James Watt to Gregory Watt, 31 March 1802, BWA James Watt Papers Letter Book /3 p. 214 AM-IR series 3 part 1 reel 8.

¹¹⁴Samuel Clegg, A Practical Treatise on the Manufacture and Distribution of Coal-Gas (London, 1841), 6. Clegg was on the payroll in 1801, see BWA Muirhead II /7/3, AM-IR series 1 part 6 reel 75.

¹¹⁵Clegg (note 114), 6.

¹¹⁶According to Creighton note (4), 449, coal gives off 330–360 ft³ of gas per cwt, or 3 ft³/lb. A single candle brightness lamp consumed about 0.35–0.45 ft³/hour of gas.

¹¹⁷Thomas Beddoes and James Watt, Considerations on the Medicinal Use, and on the Production of Factitious Airs (Bristol, 1795), part 2, 27–35.

¹¹⁸For a brief summary of Beddoes and Watt's association over pneumatic medicine see F. F. Cartwright, ‘The Association of Thomas Beddoes, M.D. With James Watt, F.R.S’, Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, 22, no. 1/2 (1967) 131–43, and David Philip Miller and Trevor Levere, ‘Inhale It and See? the Collaboration Between Thomas Beddoes and James Watt in Pneumatic Medicine’, Ambix, 55 (2008), 5–28.

¹¹⁹Trevor Levere, ‘The Role of Instruments in the Dissemination of the Chemical Revolution’, Éndoxa: series filosóficas 19 (2005), 227–42 (239). Levere, ‘Dr. Thomas Beddoes (1760–1808), Chemistry, Medicine, and Books in the French and Chemical Revolutions’ in New Narratives in Eighteenth-Century Chemistry: Contributions from the First Francis Bacon Workshop, 21–23 April 2005, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, ed. Lawrence Principe (Dordrecht: Springer, 2007), 165–70.

¹²⁰See the various financial reports in BWA Muirhead II /7/3, AM-IR series 1 part 6 reel 75.

¹²¹Clegg (note 114), 6.

¹²²Joseph Banks, ‘Report of Royal Society on gas-lights; Report of inspectors on gas-light establishments in the Metropolis’, in House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, V.303 (1823), 3.

¹²³See Johann Friedrich Gmelin, Geschichte der Chemie seit dem Wiederaufleben der Wissenschaften bis an das Ende des achtzehnden Jahrhunderts (Göttingen, 1798), II, 367–80, for an extensive bibliography summarizing contemporary knowledge of inflammable gases.