producible from coal was known long before his day, as the Rev. Dr. John
Clayton, Dean of Kildare, mentioned it in a letter he wrote to the Hon.
Robert Boyle, in 1691. The Dr.'s discovery was probably made during his
stay in Virginia, and another letter of his shows the probability of his
being aware that the gas would pass through water without losing its
lighting properties. The discovery has also been claimed as that of a
learned French _savant_ but Murdoch must certainly take the honour of
being the first to bring gas into practical use at his residence, at
Redruth, in 1792, and it is said that he even made a lantern to light
the paths in his evening walks, the gas burned in which was contained in
a bag carried under his arm, his rooms being also lit up from a bag of
gas placed under weights. The exact date of its introduction in this
neighbourhood has not been ascertained though it is believed that part
of the Soho Works were fitted with gas-lights in 1798, and, on the
occurrence of the celebration of the Peace of Amiens, in 1802, a public
exhibition was made of the new light, in the illumination of the works.
The _Gazette_ of April 5, 1802 (according to extract by Dr. Langford, in
his "Century of Birmingham Life") described the various devices in
coloured lamps and transparencies, but strangely enough does not mention
gas at all. Possibly gas was no longer much of a novelty at Soho, or the
reporter might not have known the nature of the lights used, but there
is the evidence of Mr. Wm. Matthews, who, in 1827 published an
"Historical Sketch of Gaslighting," in which he states that he had "the
inexpressible gratification of witnessing, in 1802, Mr. Murdoch's
extraordinary and splendid exhibition of gaslights at Soho." On the
other hand, the present writer was, some years back, told by one of the
few old Soho workmen then left among us, that on the occasion referred
to the only display of gas was in the shape of one large lamp placed at
one end of the factory, and then called a "Bengal light," the gas for
which was brought to the premises in several bags from Mr. Murdoch's own