William Murdoch
William Murdoch was an engineer and inventor who lived in Murdoch House in Redruth from 1782-1798. He is best known for the invention of domestic gas lighting but other successes include a working model of a low-pressure steam locomotive (the Murdoch Flyer) and a process for clearing beer.
When Murdoch was in his mid-twenties, he is said to have walked from Ayrshire to Birmingham to seek employment at James Watt and Matthew Boulton`s famous Soho works. One apocryphal story says that that the nervous Murdoch dropped his top hat while being interviewed by Boulton. On hearing the hat drop, Boulton found on closer inspection that Murdoch's hat was wooden and had been made on a lathe!. It is said this prompted Boulton to offer Murdoch a job immediately.
William Murdoch went on to contribute significantly to business there and can be said to have been the first in Britain to construct and use a steam-powered road going vehicle. This was in 1785 while he was in Redruth, sent there by the company to look after the steam engines that they supplied to the local tin mining industry.
Murdoch wrote: "At the time I commenced my experiments I was certainly unacquainted with the circumstances of the gas from coal having been observed by others to be capable of combustion, ... but ... I believe I may, without presuming too much, claim both the first idea of applying, and the first actual application of this gas to economic purposes."
Realising the potential of gas light, Murdoch carried out a series of experiments and devised a way to use his knowledge. Legend has it that, as he sat smoking his pipe by the fireside in Murdoch House, he took a tiny piece of burning coal from the fire, placed it inside a bowl and, having closed the lid, set alight the fine jet of gas issuing from the stem. Once his curiosity had been ignited, hemanaged to find time despite long working hours and frequent travel between mines, to experiment on the combustible properties of coal, peat, wood and other flammable substances.
By 1795 (possibly as early as 1792) Murdoch had managed to light Murdoch House by this method. Seven years later his company used gas lighting outside their factory in Birmingham and by 1813 Westminster bridge was illuminated by Murdoch's ingenuity. One can only imagine what workers in the factory thought of the artificial extension of working hours!
Much of the information above comes from Janet Thomson's book 'The Scot Who Lit The World'.