others to work out the problem of the locomotive engine.

Murdock's model remained but a curious toy, which he took
pleasure in exhibiting to his intimate friends; and, though he

long continued to speculate about road locomotion, and was
persuaded of its practicability, he abstained from embodying his

ideas of the necessary engine in any complete working form.
Murdock nevertheless continued inventing, for the man who is

given to invent, and who possesses the gift of insight, cannot
rest. He lived in the midst of inventors. Watt and Boulton were

constantly suggesting new things, and Murdock became possessed by
the same spirit. In 1791 he took out his first patent. It was

for a method of preserving ships' bottoms from foulness by the
use of a certain kind of chemical paint. Mr. Murdock's grandson

informs us that it was recently re-patented and was the cause of
a lawsuit, and that Hislop's patent for revivifying gas-lime

would have been an infringement, if it had not expired.
Murdock is still better known by his invention of gas for

lighting purposes. Several independent inquirers into the
constituents of Newcastle coal had arrived at the conclusion that

nearly one-third of the substance was driven off in vapour by the
application of heat, and that the vapour so driven off was

inflammable. But no suggestion had been made to apply this
vapour for lighting purposes until Murdock took the matter in

hand. Mr. M. S. Pearse has sent us the following interesting
reminiscence: "Some time since, when in the West of Cornwall, I

was anxious to find out whether any one remembered Murdock. I
discovered one of the most respectable and intelligent men in

Camborne, Mr. William Symons, who not only distinctly remembered
Murdock, but had actually been present on one of the first

occasions when gas was used. Murdock, he says, was very fond of
children, and not unfrequently took them into his workshop to

show them what he was doing. Hence it happened that on one
occasion this gentleman, then a boy of seven or eight, was

standing outside Murdock's door with some other boys, trying to
catch sight of some special mystery inside, for Dr. Boaze, the

chief doctor of the place, and Murdock had been busy all the
afternoon. Murdock came out, and asked my informant to run down

to a shop near by for a thimble. On returning with the thimble,
the boy pretended to have lost it, and, whilst searching in every

pocket, he managed to slip inside the door of the workshop, and
then produced the thimble. He found Dr. Boaze and Murdock with a

kettle filled with coal. The gas issuing from it had been burnt
in a large metal case, such as was used for blasting purposes.

Now, however, they had applied a much smaller tube, and at the
end of it fastened the thimble, through the small perforations

made in which they burned a continuous jet for some time."[7]
After numerous experiments, Murdock had his house in Cross Street

fitted up in 1792 for being lit by gas. The coal was subjected
to heat in an iron retort, and the gas was conveyed in pipes to

the offices and the different rooms of the house, where it was
burned at proper apertures or burners.[8] Portions of the gas

were also confined in portablevessels of tinned iron, from which
it was burned when required, thus forming a moveable gas-light.

Murdock had a gas lantern in regular use, for the purpose of
lighting himself home at night across the moors, from the mines

where he was working, to his home at Redruth. This lantern was
formed by filling a bladder with gas and fixing a jet to the

mouthpiece at the bottom of a glass lantern, with the bladder
hanging underneath.

Having satisfied himself as to the superior economy of coal gas,
as compared with oils and tallow, for the purposes of artificial

illumination, Murdock mentioned the subject to Mr. James Watt,
jun., during a brief visit to Soho in 1794, and urged the

propriety of taking out a patent. Watt was, however, indifferent
to taking out any further patents, being still engaged in

contesting with the Cornish mine-owners his father's rights to
the user of the condensing steam-engine. Nothing definite was

done at the time. Murdock returned to Cornwall and continued his
experiments. At the end of the same year he exhibited to Mr.

Phillips and others, at the Polgooth mine, his apparatus for
extracting gases from coal and other substances, showed it in

use, lit the gas which issued from the burner, and showed its
"strong and beautiful light." He afterwards exhibited the same

apparatus to Tregelles and others at the Neath Abbey Company's
ironworks in Glamorganshire.

Murdock returned to Soho in 1798, to take up his permanent
residence in the neighbourhood. When the mine owners heard of

his intention to leave Cornwall, they combined in offering him a
handsome salary provided he would remain in the county; but his

attachment to his friends at Soho would not allow him to comply
with their request. He again urged the firm of Boulton and Watt

to take out a patent for the use of gas for lighting purposes.
But being still embroiled in their tedious and costly lawsuit,

they were naturally averse to risk connection with any other
patent. Watt the younger, with whom Murdock communicated on the

subject, was aware that the current of gas obtained from the
distillation of coal in Lord Dundonald's tar-ovens had been

occasionally set fire to, and also that Bishop Watson and others
had burned gas from coal, after conducting it through tubes, or

after it had issued from the retort. Mr. Watt was, however,
quite satisfied that Murdock was the first person who had

suggested its economicalapplication for public and private uses.
But he was not clear, after the legal difficulties which had been

raised as to his father's patent rights, that it would be safe to
risk a further patent for gas.

Mr. Murdock's suggestion, accordingly, was not acted upon. But
he went on inventing in other directions. He thenceforward

devoted himself entirely to mechanical pursuits. Mr. Buckle has
said of him:-- "The rising sun often found him, after a night

spent in incessant labour, still at the anvil or turning-lathe;
for with his own hands he would make such articles as he would

not intrust to unskilful ones." In 1799 he took out a patent
(No. 2340), embodying some very important inventions. First, it

included the endless screw working into a toothed-wheel, for
boring steam-cylinders, which is still in use. Second, the

casting of a steam-jacket in one cylinder, instead of being made
in separate segments bolted together with caulked joints, as was

previously done. Third, the new double-D slide-valve, by which
the construction and working of the steam-engine was simplified,

and the loss of steam saved, as well as the cylindrical valve for
the same purpose. And fourth, improved rotary engines. One of

the latter was set to drive the machines in his private workshop,
and continued in nearly constant work and in perfect use for

about thirty years.
In 1801, Murdock sent his two sons William and John to the Ayr

Academy, for the benefit of Scotch education. In the summer-time
they spent their vacation at Bellow Mill, which their grandfather

still continued to occupy. They fished in the river, and "caught
a good many trout." The boys corresponded regularly with their

father at Birmingham. In 1804, they seem to have been in a state
of great excitement about the expected landing of the French in

Scotland. The volunteers of Ayr amounted to 300 men, the cavalry
to 150, and the riflemen to 50. "The riflemen," says John, "go

to the seashore every Saturday to shoot at a target. They stand
at 70 paces distant, and out of 100 shots they often put in 60

bullets!" William says, "Great preparations are still making for
the reception of the French. Several thousand of pikes are

carried through the town every week; and all the volunteers and
riflemen have received orders to march at a moment's warning."

The alarm, however, passed away. At the end of 1804, the two
boys received prizes; William got one in arithmetic and another

in the Rector's composition class; and John also obtained two,
one in the mathematical class, and the other in French.

To return to the application of gas for lighting purposes. In
1801, a plan was proposed by a M. Le Blond for lighting a part of