William Murdock (1754-1839) was a consummate and prolific inventor, but the invention that he is most remembered for today was the development of gas lighting, which took over from the oil and tallow system. His experiments began around 1792 when he realized that gases released from burning coal could be lit and used as a steady source of light. He is said to have burned coal in his mother's old kettle, lighting the gas that came out of the spout. By 1794, however, the kettle had been replaced by a specially built retort in which the coal was burned; gas from the burning coal was tunneled through a long attached tube, to be ignited at the tube's end.
Murdock first used his system of gas lighting in his own home in Redruth, Cornwall, and continued to develop methods for producing, storing, and igniting the gas more efficiently and practically In 1798 he moved back to Birmingham from Cornwall to work at the Boulton and Watt factory (run by Matthew Boulton, the renowned engineer, and James Watt, of steam engine fame), in which he'installed his new gas lighting. In 1802 he illuminated part of the factory's exterior, to great public delight. The following year his gas lighting was installed in the Philips and Lee cotton mill in Manchester.
Why Murdock failed to obtain a patent remains a mystery, although it is possible he was discouraged from doing so by his employers, Boulton and Watt. By the mid-1800s most large towns in England were illuminated by gas lighting and had their own gas works, all based on Murdock's original invention, but for this he received little benefit.
