the gas
sometime, it still retained its elasticity and inflammability, it is
remarkable, that the philosophers of the time undertook no experiments
with the view of applying it to useful purposes.

Dr. John Clayton, in an extract from a letter in the "Philosophical
Transactions" for 1735, calls gas the "spirit" of coal; and came to a
knowledge of its inflammability by an accident. This "spirit" chanced to
catch fire, by coming in contact with a candle, as it was escaping from
a fracture in one of his distillatory vessels. By preserving the gas in
bladders, he frequently diverted his friends, by exhibiting its
inflammability. This is the nearest approach to the idea of practically
applying this property.

The subject attracted the attention of Dr. Richard Watson, who published
the results of his researches in the second volume of his "Chemical
Essays." He dwells upon the elasticity and inflammability of coal-gas;
and remarked, that it retains these properties _after passing through
a great quantity of water_.

The man who first applied the inflammability of gas to the purposes of
illumination, was Mr. Murdoch. This gentleman, residing at Soho, near
Birmingham, that hot-bed of ingenuity and mechanical science, on
occasion of the celebration of the peace of 1802, covered the works of
Soho with a light and splendour that astonished and delighted all the
population of the surrounding country. Mr. Murdoch had not attained to
this perfection without having had many difficulties to encounter. In
the year 1792, he used coal gas for lighting his house and offices, at
Redruth, in Cornwall; and in 1797 he again made a similar use of it at
Old Cunnock, in Ayrshire. At Soho, he constructed an apparatus which
enabled him to exhibit his plan on a larger scale than any he had
heretofore attempted. His experiments were then seduously continued,
with the able assistance of Mr. Southern and Mr. Henry Creighton, with
a view to ascertain not only the best modes of making, but also of
purifying and burning gas, so as to prevent either the smell or the
smoke from being offensive.

Previous to the public display made of the illuminating properties of
gas, at Soho, it had been applied to similar purposes, by a M. Le Bon,
of Paris. A friend of the gentlemen at Soho, wrote from Paris a letter,
dated November 8, 1801, to that establishment, informing them, that a
person had lighted up his house and gardens with the gas obtained from
wood and