cation and a fertile invention. These requisites were found in the
person of Mr. Samuel Clegg, under whose able direction and
superintendence the principal works of the company, at their different
stations, were erected. From this period various improvements were
gradually introduced into almost every part of the apparatus. In 1816,
Mr. Clegg obtained the patent for his horizontal rotative retort; his
apparatus for purifying coal gas with cream of lime; for his rotative
gas meter; and self-acting governor; and altogether by his exertions the
London and Westminster Company's affairs assumed a new and flattering
aspect.

For reasons which are not assigned, in 1817, Mr. Clegg retired from the
service of this establishment.

In this year, 1817, at the three stations belonging to the Chartered Gas
Company, twenty-five chaldron of coal were daily carbonized, producing
300,000 cubic feet of gas, which was equal to the supply of 75,000
Argand lamps, each yielding the light of six candles. At the City Gas
Works, in Dorset-street, Black-friars, the quantity of coal daily
carbonized amounted to, three chaldron, which afforded a quantity of gas
adequate to the supply of 1,500 Argand lamps; so that twenty-eight
chaldron of coal were daily carbonized at that time, and 76,500 lights
supplied by those two companies only.

At this period the principal object of attention in the manufacture of
gas was its purification. Mr. D. Wilson, of Dublin, took out a patent
for purifying coal gas by means of the chemical action of ammoniacal
gas. Another plan was devised by Mr. Reuben Phillips, of Exeter, who
obtained a patent for the purification of coal gas by the use of dry
lime. Mr. G. Holworthy, in 1818, took out a patent for a method of
purifying it by causing the gas, in a highly-condensed state, to pass
through iron retorts heated to a dark red. For this object and several
others, having in view improvements upon the ordinary method, many other
patents were procured.

OIL gas now appeared in the field as a rival of COAL gas. In 1815, Mr.
John Taylor had obtained a patent for an apparatus for the decomposition
of _oil_ and other animal substances; but the circumstance which
more particularly attracted the public attention to be directed to
_oil_ gas was the erection of the patent apparatus at Apothecary's
Hall, by Messrs. Taylors and Martineau; and the way was prepared for an
application to parliament for the establishment of an Oil Gas C