Artificial Light: Its Influence upon CivilizationLuckiesh, Matthew
History
Artificial Light: Its Influence upon Civilization
Luckiesh, Matthew
Electric lighting; Lighting -- History
According to Murdock, the yearly cost of gas-lighting in this initial
case was 600 pounds sterling after allowing generously for interest on
capital invested and depreciation of the apparatus. The cost of
furnishing the same amount of light by means of candles he computed to
be 2000 pounds sterling. This comparison was on the basis of an average
of two hours of artificial lighting per day. On the basis of three hours
of artificial lighting per day, the relative cost of gas-and
candle-lighting was about one to five. Murdock was characteristically
modest in discussing his achievements and his following statement should
be read with the conditions of the year 1808 in mind:
The peculiar softness and clearness of this light with its
almost unvarying intensity, have brought it into great favour
with the work people. And its being free from the inconvenience
and danger, resulting from sparks and frequent snuffing of
candles, is a circumstance of material importance, as tending
to diminish the hazard of fire, to which cotton mills are known
to be exposed.
Although this installation in the mill of Phillips and Lee is the first
one described by Murdock, in reality it is not the first industrial
gas-lighting installation. During the development of gas apparatus at
the Soho works and after his luminous display in 1802, he gradually
extended gas-lighting to all the principal shops. However, this in a
sense was experimental work. Others were applying their knowledge and
ingenuity to the problem of making gas-lighting practicable, but Murdock
has been aptly termed "the father of gas-lighting." Among the pioneers
was Le Bon in France, Becher in Munich, and Winzler or Winsor, a German
who was attracted to the possibilities of gas-lighting by an exhibition
which Le Bon gave in Paris in 1802. Winsor learned that Le Bon had been
granted a patent in Paris in 1799 for making an illuminating gas from
wood and tried to obtain the rights for Germany. Being unsuccessful in
this, he set about to learn the secrets of Le Bon's process, which he
did, perhaps largely owing to an accumulation of information directly
from the inventor during the negotiations. Winsor then turned to England
as a fertile field for the exploitation of gas-lighting and after
conducting experiments in London for some time he made plans to organize
the National Heat and Light Co.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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