Murdock
NAME: Murdock, William
ACHIEVEMENTS:
Pioneer of steam engines and coal-gas lighting
NICKNAME/ALIAS:
None
DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH:
21 August 1754, Old Cumnock, Ayrshire, Scotland
DATE AND PLACE OF DEATH AND AGE AT DEATH:
15 November 1839, Birmingham, England. Aged 85
DISCIPLINE:
Engineer
FIELD:
Steam power and coal gas illumination
LANGUAGE:
English
PARENTS:
Father: John Murdock
Mother: name unknown
SIBLINGS:
2 brothers, and ???
SPOUSE:
Miss Paynter
CHILDREN:
2 sons: William, John
2 daughters: ???
EDUCATION:
Local schools
MAJOR WORK:
None
LIFE AND TIMES:
Murdock’s father was a miller, farmer, carpenter and millwright, who knew Roebuck* of the Carron Ironworks and through him got an introduction for his son to the English manufacturer Boulton*.
In 1777 Murdock went south to look for work as an engineer and called in at the Soho factory in Birmingham where Boulton had joined with Watt* to develop Watt’s steam engine. It is said that Murdock, who was nervous, dropped his hat on the floor. Boulton noticed the noise as it hit the floor and so found out that it was a wooden hat. He hired Murdock on the spot when he found that Murdock had made the hat, turning the wood on a lathe he had constructed himself.
In 1779, Murdock was sent to Cornwall to oversee the installation of Watt’s engines in the Cornish mines. He was the first to develop an oscillating engine, of which he made a model, and he is generally given credit for the sun-and-planet gearing* by which steam engines give continuous revolving motion to a shaft provided with a flywheel.
At his home in Redruth around 1792, Murdock began investigating the illuminating properties of gases produced by the distillation of coal, wood and peat. The possibility of obtaining illumination from coal gas had already been trialed by Archibald Cochrane* but he had not succeeded in putting his idea into effect. Murdock put a burning coal from the fire in the bowl of his pipe, covered the bowl to prevent the escape of coal gas and then applied a match to the opening at the end of the pipe stem. It burned with a bright flame until the piece of coal burned out.
He arranged for coal samples to be sent from all over the country and eventually lit every room in his house. He produced coal gas in the back yard of his house in a metal cylinder and arranged a series of pipes leading from the cylinder into his house. He lit his house and office in this way and gave demonstrations outside his home.
In 1799 he invented the long D slide valve which replaced more complicated machinery on Watt’s engine and in the same year he resigned his position and went back to Scotland. After a year, he accepted an offer to return to Birmingham as manager of the Soho foundry. He was now in a position to insist on being able to carry on with his experiments into coal gas illumination. Together with Clegg*, an apprentice at Soho, he provided coal-gas illuminations for the front of the factory in celebration of the Peace of Amiens in 1802.
Over the next few years, Murdock continued to experiment and the Soho factory began to manufacture gas-making plant; in 1804, they sold gas-making apparatus to a cotton spinning mill in Manchester.
In 1808 Murdock presented paper to the Royal Society, detailing his investigations and the use of gaslight* at the cotton mill. The Royal Society recognized Murdock’s pioneering work by awarding him the Rumford gold medal, inscribed with the words ‘ex fumo dare lucem’ (‘to give light from smoke’).
Boulton and Watt, worn out with patent battles over steam power, had still not bothered to patent Murdock’s process and although Murdock won a case against Winsor*, who wanted to form a gas-supply company, he did not do so himself.
Coal gas illumination was supplied by others and it was through attempting to utilize the waste product of gas works that Charles Macintosh* discovered his waterproofing process. Murdock continued to work at Soho in his experimental workshop, developing machine tools, and traveling all over the country to install Watt engines.
Among his inventions were a steam gun, a new type of cement made of sal-ammoniac and iron, a machine for consolidating peat moss which he then made into medals and necklaces. He anticipated the use of tidal power, and designed pneumatic tubes for transmitting letters with an air pump.
At his home he used the force of compressed air to ring the bells in his house, a method adopted by the novelist Sir Walter Scott* at his house in Scotland.
In 1830 Murdock retired.
ASSESSMENT: Murdock is recognized as making the first practical use of coal gas for illumination.
EXTRA CONNECTIONS: Rival was Trevithick*
His work influenced Green*
ONELINER: William Murdock, who developed gaslight
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Taylor, Boswell, William Murdock, New Lamps for Old, Macmillan & Co. Ltd., London, 1952
Timmins, Sam, William Murdock, 1894, in Biographical Tracts, 1876-1884