wn house at Redruth. He then transferred his
services to the great engineering firm of Boulton and Watt at Soho, near
Birmingham, where he erected apparatus in 1798, and in the course of a few
years the whole of this factory was permanently lighted by gas. From this
time the introduction of gas into other factories at Manchester and
Halifax was effected by Murdoch and his pupil, Samuel Clegg. From single
factories coal-gas at length came into use as a street illuminant,
although somewhat tardily. Experiments were made in London at the Lyceum
Theatre in 1803, in Golden Lane in 1807, and in Pall Mall two years later.

It was fifteen years from the time of Murdoch's first installation at Soho
before the streets of London were lighted by gas on a commercial scale.
Our grandfathers seem to have had a great dread of gas, and public
opposition no doubt had much to do with its exclusion from the metropolis.
There were even at that time eminent literary and scientific men who did
not hesitate to cast ridicule upon the proposal, and to declare the scheme
to be only visionary. But about 1806 there came into this country an
energetic German who passed by the name of Winsor, and who is described as
an ignorant adventurer, whose real name was Winzler. Whatever his origin,
he certainly helped to rouse the public interest in gas lighting. He took
out a patent, he gave public lectures, and collected large sums of money
for the establishment of gas companies. Most of the capital was, however,
squandered in futile experiments, but at length in 1813, Westminster
Bridge, and a year later St. Margaret's parish, was successfully lighted.
From that period the use of gas extended, but it was some time before the
public fears were allayed, for it is related that Samuel Clegg, who
undertook the lighting of London Bridge, had at first to light his own
lamps, as nobody could be found to undertake this perilous office. Even
after gas had come into general use as a street illuminant, it must have
found its way but slowly into private houses. In an old play-bill of the
Haymarket Theatre, dated 1843--thirty years after the first introduction
into the streets--it is announced--

"Among the most important Improvements, is the introduction (for the first
time) of Gas as the Medium of Light!"

The manufacture of coal-gas, first rendered practicable by the energy and
skill of the Scotch engineer Murdoch, is now carried on all over the
country on a colossal