d of preparing and using them. He occupied
handsome apartments, and, little regarding the splendour of the
drawing-room, he hung the fish-skins up against the walls. His
landlady caught him one day when he was about to bang up a wet cod's
skin! He was turned out at once, with all his fish. While in town on
this errand, it occurred to him that a great deal of power was wasted
in treading the streets of London! He conceived the idea of using the
streets and roadways as a grand tread-mill, under which the waste power
might be stored up by mechanical methods and turned to account. He had
also an idea of storing up the power of the tides, and of running
water, in the same way. The late Charles Babbage, F.R.S., entertained
a similar idea about using springs of Ischia or of the geysers of
Iceland as a power necessary for condensing gases, or perhaps for the
storage of electricity.[12] The latter, when perfected, will probably
be the greatest invention of the next half century.

Another of Murdock's' ingenious schemes, was his proposed method of
transmitting letters and packages through a tube exhausted by an
air-pump. This project led to the Atmospheric Railway, the success of
which, so far as it went, was due to the practical ability of Murdock's
pupil, Samuel Clegg. Although the atmospheric railway was eventually
abandoned, it is remarkable that the original idea was afterwards
revived and practised with success by the London Pneumatic Dispatch
Company.

In 1815, while Murdock was engaged in erecting an apparatus of his own
invention for heating the water for the baths at Leamington, a
ponderous cast-iron plate fell upon his leg above his ankle, and
severely injured him. He remained a long while at Leamington, and when
it was thought safe to remove him, the Birmingham Canal Company kindly
placed their excursion boat at his disposal, and he was conveyed safely
homeward. So soon as he was able, he was at work again at the Soho
factory.

Although the elder Watt had to a certain extent ignored the uses of
steam as applied to navigation, being too much occupied with developing
the powers of the pumping and rotary engine, the young partners, with
the stout aid of Murdock, took up the question. They supplied Fulton in
1807 with his first engine, by means of which the Clermont made her
first voyage along the Hudson river. They also supplied Fulton and
Livingston with the next two engines for the Car of Neptune and the