eatest characters
that ever adorned either this University or the Church of England."

This is quoted from the 5th edition, dated 1789, the essay on coal being
in the second of five volumes. As the learned bishop published other works
on chemistry, we may suppose that the forgiveness which he asks from his
brother divines was duly accorded.

None of these preliminary experiments, however, led to any immediate
practical result so far as concerns the use of coal-gas as an illuminating
agent. Towards the end of the last century the lighting of individual
establishments commenced, and the way was thus prepared for the
manufacture of the gas on a large scale. One of the earliest pioneers was
the ninth Earl of Dundonald, an inventive genius, who in 1782 at Culross
Abbey became one of the first practical tar distillers. He secured letters
patent in 1781 for making tar, pitch, essential oils, volatile alkali,
mineral acids, salts, and cinders from coal. The gas was only a waste
product, and, strange as it may appear, the Earl, whose operations were
financial failures, did not realize the importance of the gas, the tar and
coke being considered the only products of value. Here is the account of
the experiments by his son, Admiral Dundonald, the Sailor Earl, quoted
from his _Autobiography of a Seaman_:--

"In prosecution of his coal-tar patent, my father went to reside at the
family estate of Culross Abbey, the better to superintend the works on his
own collieries, as well as others on the adjoining estates of Valleyfield
and Kincardine. In addition to these works, an experimental tar-kiln was
erected near the Abbey, and here coal-gas became accidentally employed in
illumination. Having noticed the inflammable nature of a vapour arising
during the distillation of tar, the Earl, by way of experiment, fitted a
gun-barrel to the eduction pipe leading from the condenser. On applying
fire to the muzzle, a vivid light blazed forth across the waters of the
Frith, becoming, as was afterwards ascertained, distinctly visible on the
opposite shore."

A few years later the foundation of the coal-gas manufacture was laid by
William Murdoch, a Scotchman, who must be credited with the practical
introduction of this illuminating agent. The idea had about the same time
occurred to a Frenchman, Lebon, but in his hands the suggestion did not
take a practical form. Murdoch was overseer of some mines in Cornwall, and
in 1792 he first lighted his o