Murdock

Murdock, or MURDOCH, WILLIAM, inventor of gas for illuminating purposes, was born 25th August 1754, near Auchinleck, Ayrshire. His family traced their descent from some Flemish architects or engineers; and his father, a millwright and miller near Old Cumnock, designed the first iron-toothed gearing in Great Britain. Murdock worked under his father till he was twenty-three, then entered the employment of Boulton & Watt, Birmingham, and showed such marked ability that he was sent to Cornwall to superintend the erection of mining engines there. At Redruth he constructed in 1781 the model of a high-pressure engine to run on wheels. Watt showed some jealousy at these efforts; but Boulton offered him a reward for an engine capable of carrying two persons and the driver. His labours in Cornwall were arduous, though he had not more than £1 per week up till his forty-fourth year; and, a request for an increase of salary not being promptly acceded to, he made up his mind to change. The mining companies at last realising the value of his services, offered him £1000 a year as chief engineer at the mines. But he declined, returning to Boulton & Watt, who gave him a like salary as general manager of Soho Works. Murdock's inventive brain was never idle; he introduced labour-saving machinery, a new method of wheel rotation, and an oscillating engine (1785) of a pattern still in use. He also improved Watt's engine; introduced a method of casting steam cases for cylinders in one piece, instead of in segments; a rotatory and compressed-air engine; a steam gun; cast-iron cement; a method of heating by circulating water through pipes; a method of sending messages through an exhausted air tube; and many other inventions. His investigations in the distillation of coal-gas began at Redruth in 1792, when he lighted his offices and cottages by its agency. He publicly showed the results in 1797 and in 1798, the premises at Soho being lighted with gas. But he did not reap due profit from this useful invention. He died 15th November 1839. See a life of him by his kinsman Alexander Murdoch (1892).