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Men of Invention and Industry-Part21_Samuel Smiles(1812-1904)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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the streets of Paris with gas. Murdock actively resumed his

experiments; and on the occasion of the Peace of Amiens in March,



1802, he made the first public exhibition of his invention. The

whole of the works at Soho were brilliantly illuminated with gas.



The sight was received with immenseenthusiasm. There could now

be no doubt as to the enormous advantages of this method of



producing artificial light, compared with that from oil or

tallow. In the following year the manufacture of gas-making



apparatus was added to the other branches of Boulton and Watts'

business, with which Murdock was now associated,--and as much as



from 4000L. to 5000L. of capital were invested in the new works.

The new method of lightingspeedily became popular amongst



manufacturers, from its superior safety, cheapness, and

illuminating power. The mills of Phillips and Lee of Manchester



were fitted up in 1805; and those of Burley and Kennedy, also of

Manchester, and of Messrs. Gott, of Leeds, in subsequent years.



Though Murdock had made the uses of gas-lightingperfectly clear,

it was some time before it was proposed to light the streets by



the new method. The idea was ridiculed by Sir Humphry Davy, who

asked one of the projectors if he intended to take the dome of



St. Paul's for a gasometer! Sir Waiter Scott made many clever

jokes about those who proposed to "send light through the streets



in pipes;" and even Wollaston, a well known man of science,

declared that they "might as well attempt to light London with a



slice from the moon." It has been so with all new projects--

with the steamboat, the locomotive, and the electric telegraph.



As John Wilkinson said of the first vessel of iron which he

introduced, "it will be only a nine days' wonder, and afterwards



a Columbus's egg."

On the 25th of February, 1808, Murdock read a paper before the



Royal Society "On the Application of Gas from Coal to economical

purposes." He gave a history of the origin and progress of his



experiments, down to the time when he had satisfactorily lit up

the premises of Phillips and Lee at Manchester. The paper was



modest and unassuming, like everything he did.

It concluded:-- "I believe I may, without presuming too much,



claim both the first idea of applying, and the first application

of this gas to economical purposes."[9] The Royal Society



awarded Murdock their large Rumford Gold Medal for his

communication.



In the following year a German named Wintzer, or Winsor, appeared

as the promotor of a scheme for obtaining a royal charter with



extensive privileges, and applied for powers to form a

joint-stock company to light part of London and Westminster with



gas. Winsor claimed for his method of gas manufacture that it

was more efficacious and profitable than any then known or



practised. The profits, indeed, were to be prodigious. Winsor

made an elaboratecalculation in his pamphlet entitled 'The New



Patriotic Imperial and National Light and Heat Company,' from

which it appeared that the net annual profits "agreeable to the



official experiments" would amount to over two hundred and

twenty-nine millions of pounds!--and that, giving over



nine-tenths of that sum towards the redemption of the National

Debt, there would still remain a total profit of 570L. to be paid



to the subscribers for every 5L. of deposit! Winsor took out a

patent for the invention, and the company, of which he was a



member, proceeded to Parliament for an Act. Boulton and Watt

petitioned against the Bill, and James Watt, junior, gave



evidence on the subject. Henry Brougham, who was the counsel for

the petitioners, made great fun of Winsor's absurd



speculations,[10] and the Bill was thrown out.

In the following year the London and Westminster Chartered Gas



Light and Coke Company succeeded in obtaining their Act. They

were not very successful at first. Many prejudices existed



against the employment of the new light. It was popularly

supposed that the gas was carried along the pipes on fire, and






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