house. Though it has been always believed that the factory and offices
throughout were lighted by gas in 1803, very soon after the Amiens
illumination, a correspondent to the _Daily Post_ has lately stated that
when certain of his friends went to Soho, in 1834, they found no lights
in use, even for blowpipes, except oil and candles and that they had to
lay on gas from the mains of the Birmingham and Staffordshire Gas
Company in the Holyhead Road. If correct, this is a curious bit of the
history of the celebrated Soho, as other manufacturers were not at all
slow in introducing gas for working purposes as well as lighting, a
well-known tradesman, Benjamin Cook, Caroline Street, having fitted up
retorts and a gasometer on his premises in 1808, his first pipes being
composed of old or waste gun-barrels, and he reckoned to clear a profit
of £30 a year, as against his former expenditure for candles and oil.
The glassworks of Jones, Smart, and Co., of Aston Hill, were lit up by
gas as early as 1810, 120 burners being used at a nightly cost of 4s.
6d., the gas being made on the premises from a bushel of coal per day.
The first proposal to use gas in lighting the streets of Birmingham was
made in July 1811, and here and there a lamp soon appeared, but they
were supplied by private firms, one of whom afterwards supplied gas to
light the chapel formerly on the site of the present Assay Office,
taking it from their works in Caroline Street, once those of B. Cook
before-mentioned. The Street Commissioners did not take the matter in
hand till 1815, on November 8 of which year they advertised for tenders
for lighting the streets with gas instead of oil. The first shop in
which gas was used was that of Messrs. Poultney, at the corner of Moor
Street, in 1818, the pipes being laid from the works in Gas Street by a
private individual, whose interest therein was bought up by the
Birmingham Gaslight Company. The principal streets were first officially
lighted by gas-lamps on April 29, 1826, but it was not until March,
1843, that the Town Council resolved that that part of the borough