The invention of Gas Lighting had its origin in the earliest times of history; not, indeed, as we now see it, burning at the end of a pipe supplied with gas made artificially, and stored in gas-holders, but blazing from fissures in the ground, supplied from natural sources in the bowels of the earth. The Greek fire-altars are supposed to have been supplied with gas, either issuing from bituminous beds, or made artificially by the priests, by pouring oil on heated stones placed in cavities beneath. Fountains of naphtha, and fires issuing from the earth at Ecbatana, in Media, are mentioned by Plutarch in his life of Alexander, and many other ancient historians record the knowledge of similar instances of natural gas lighting.
In later times, the inflammable gas issuing into the galleries of coal mines, and either exploding when mixed with atmospheric air, or blazing as it issued from fissures in the coal, afforded instances of the natural production of gas, the ignition of which too frequently proved fatal to those in the mines.
A remarkable instance of the issue of inflammable gas into the shaft of a coal mine at Whitehaven, which produced a blaze about 3 feet diameter and 6 feet long, is noticed in the "Philosophical Transactions" of 1733. The part whence the gas issued was vaulted off, and a tube was inserted into the cavity and carried to the top of the pit, where it escaped in undiminished quantity for years, and lighted the country for a distance of several miles. Many experiments were made with this large issue of gas, and it was proposed to conduct it in pipes to Whitehaven, to light the streets of that town, but the proposition was rejected by the local authorities.
In China, naturally produced gas is used on a large scale, and was so long before the knowledge of its application was acquired by Europeans. Beds of coal, lying at a great depth, are frequently pierced by the borers for salt water, and from these wells the inflammable gas springs up. It sometimes appears as a jet of fire from 20 to 30 feet high; and, in the neighbourhood of Thsee-Lieon-Teing, the salt works were formerly heated and lighted by means of these fountains of fire. Bamboo pipes carry the gas from the spring to the places where it is intended to be consumed. These canes are terminated by tubes of pipe-clay, to prevent their being burnt, and other bamboo canes conduct the gas intended for lighting the streets, and into large apartments and kitchens. Thus Nature presents in these positions a complete establishment of gas-light works.[9]
Though the production of illuminating gas from natural sources had been thus long known, the idea of distilling it artificially from coal, for the purpose of illumination, did not occur until the end of the last century. Dr. Clayton, indeed, nearly arrived at the practical application of carburretted hydrogen, in 1737, for he instituted experiments to prove that coal contains gas, nearly similar to that of the "fire damp" in coal mines, and that it burns with a bright flame. At that time, however, the nature of gases was so imperfectly known, that he was unable to do more than discover that coal possesses the property of giving out, when heated, gas that will burn with a bright light.
In the "Philosophical Transactions" of 1739, Dr. Clayton thus describes the effect of the "spirit of coal," obtained by destructive distillation in an iron retort. "I kept this spirit," he says, "in bladders for a considerable time, and endeavoured several ways to condense it, but in vain; and when I had a mind to divert strangers or friends, I have frequently taken one of these bladders, and pierced a hole in it with a pin, and, compressing gently the bladder near the flame of a candle till it once took fire, it would then continue flaming till all the spirit was compressed out of the bladder; which was the more surprising, because no one could discern any difference in the appearance between these bladders and those which were filled with common air."
The first known application of coal gas to illumination was made, in 1792, by Mr. William Murdoch, engineer at the Soho manufactory, to whose great ingenuity the world is also indebted for the invention of the first plan of a steam locomotive engine.[10] He was at that time occupied in superintending the fitting up of steam engines for the Cornish mines, and his attention having been directed to the properties of gas issuing from coal, he instituted a series of experiments on carburretted hydrogen, the practical result of which was the lighting of his house and offices, at Redruth, with coal gas. The mines at which Mr. Murdoch worked being some miles distant from his house, he was in the constant practice of filling a bladder with coal gas, in the neck of which he fixed a metallic tube with a small orifice, through which the gas issued. The lighted gas issuing through the tube served as a lantern to light his way; and as he thus proceeded along the road with the light issuing from the bladder, the country people looked upon him as a wizard.
The gas was generated by Mr. Murdoch in an iron retort, and collected in a common gasometer, from which it was conducted in pipes to the rooms to be lighted. He also, in an early stage of the invention, contrived a means for making the gas portable, by compressing it into strong vessels; a plan which, a few years since, was adopted by the Portable Gas Company in London.
Mr. Murdoch having proved the practicability of illumination by gas generated from coal, he continued his experiments to facilitate the manufacture of the gas on a large scale, and for its more perfect purification. The first public display of its illuminating power was made at the rejoicings for the peace of Amiens, in 1802, on which occasion part of the work-shops of Messrs. Boulton and Watt, at Soho, was brilliantly illuminated with coal gas by Mr. Murdoch. In 1805, Messrs. Phillips and Lee, of Manchester, had their extensive cotton mill fitted up with gas apparatus, under the superintendence of Mr. Murdoch, and the quantity of light given out by the burners in all parts of the cotton mill was equal to that of 3,000 candles.[11]
Notwithstanding these eminently successful trials of gas lighting, the prejudice against innovation prevented, for several years, the extensive adoption of the plan. As every establishment using gas had to make it, and as the apparatus was costly and imperfectly managed, the expense in the first instance, the trouble, and the noxious smell, presented great obstacles to the introduction of that mode of illumination. The popular notion, also, that streams of flame were rushing along the pipes produced an impression that gas lighting must be very dangerous, which it required time to disprove. It was not, therefore, till several years after the advantages and economy of gas had been practically established, that a public company was formed for laying down pipes to light the streets, and to convey the gas into houses for lighting shops.