d that the net annual profits "agreeable
to the official experiments" would amount to over two hundred and
twenty-nine millions of pounds!--and that, giving over nine-tenths of
that sum towards the redemption of the National Debt, there would still
remain a total profit of 570L. to be paid to the subscribers for every
5L. of deposit! Winsor took out a patent for the invention, and the
company, of which he was a member, proceeded to Parliament for an Act.
Boulton and Watt petitioned against the Bill, and James Watt, junior,
gave evidence on the subject. Henry Brougham, who was the counsel for
the petitioners, made great fun of Winsor's absurd speculations,[10]
and the Bill was thrown out.

In the following year the London and Westminster Chartered Gas Light
and Coke Company succeeded in obtaining their Act. They were not very
successful at first. Many prejudices existed against the employment of
the new light. It was popularly supposed that the gas was carried
along the pipes on fire, and that the pipes must necessarily be
intensely hot. When it was proposed to light the House of Commons with
gas, the architect insisted on the pipes being placed several inches
from the walls, for fear of fire; and, after the pipes had been fixed,
the members might be seen applying their gloved hands to them to
ascertain their temperature, and afterwards expressing the greatest
surprise on finding that they were as cool as the adjoining walls.

The Gas Company was on the point of dissolution when Mr. Samuel Clegg
came to their aid. Clegg had been a pupil of Murdock's, at Soho. He
knew all the arrangements which Murdock had invented. He had assisted
in fitting up the gas machinery at the mills of Phillips & Lee,
Manchester, as well as at Lodge's Mill, Sowerby Bridge, near Halifax.
He was afterwards employed to fix the apparatus at the Catholic College
of Stoneyhurst, in Lancashire, at the manufactory of Mr. Harris at
Coventry, and at other places. In 1813 the London and Westminster Gas
Company secured the services of Mr. Clegg, and from that time forwards
their career was one of prosperity. In 1814 Westminster Bridge was
first lighted with gas, and shortly after the streets of St.
Margaret's, Westminster. Crowds of people followed the lamplighter on
his rounds to watch the sudden effect of his flame applied to the
invisible stream of gas which issued from the burner. The lamplighters
became so disgusted with the new light that