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{{Other uses}}▼
{{Short description|Scottish engineer and inventor (1754-1839)}}
▲{{Other uses}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
{{More footnotes needed|date=March 2011}}
{{Infobox scientist
|name = William Murdoch
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|death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1839|11|15|1754|08|21}}
|death_place = [[Handsworth, West Midlands|Handsworth, nr. Birmingham]], [[England]], United Kingdom
|citizenship = British
|nationality =
|field = [[Steam engines]], [[Gas lighting]]
|work_institutions =
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}}
'''William Murdoch''' (sometimes spelled '''Murdock''') (21 August 1754 – 15 November 1839) was a Scottish
Murdoch was employed by the firm of [[Boulton & Watt]] and worked for them in [[Cornwall]], as a [[steam engine]] erector for ten years, spending most of the rest of his life in [[Birmingham]], England.
Murdoch was the inventor of the [[oscillating cylinder steam engine]], and [[gas lighting]] is attributed to him in the early 1790s, as well as the term "[[gasometer]]". However
Murdoch also made innovations to the steam engine, including the [[sun and planet gear]] and [[D slide valve]]. He invented the steam gun and the [[pneumatic tube]] message system, and worked on one of the first British [[paddle steamer]]s to cross the [[English Channel]]. Murdoch built a [[prototype]] [[locomotive|steam locomotive]] in 1784, and made a number of discoveries in [[chemistry]].
Murdoch remained an employee and later a partner of [[Boulton & Watt]] until the 1830s, and his reputation as an inventor has been obscured by the reputations of [[Matthew Boulton]] and [[James Watt]] and the firm they founded.▼
▲Murdoch remained an employee, and later a partner, of [[Boulton
==Early life==
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Although after 1786 there is no further mention of Murdoch's work on Steam Carriages in Watt's or Boulton's correspondence, a volume of evidence exists that he continued to work on it without his employers' support, and some argue that a full size version was built.
One story often told, both in respect of a full size carriage and one of his models, is that one night Murdoch decided to test his carriage outside on the open road and it soon outpaced him, leaving him to chase after it. Whilst chasing it he encountered a local clergyman in a state of considerable distress who had mistaken his carriage, with its billowing smoke and fire burning under the boiler, for the [[devil]].<ref name=Burton12>{{cite book |last=Burton |first=Anthony |date=2000 |title=Traction Engines Two Centuries of Steam Power |publisher=Silverdale Books |page=12 |isbn=1856055337}}</ref> This story may be accurate; however, is more likely to relate to a model than to a full-size steam carriage.
Another story often told, this one almost certainly apocryphal, is of Murdoch travelling from "mine to mine in a steam chaise lit by gas". Given the state of the roads at that time this can be discounted. However, it is argued by John Griffiths that Murdoch may have built a full-size steam carriage some time in the 1790s, which could be the source of this story.
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==Gas lighting==
The key invention for which Murdoch is best known is the application of [[gas lighting]] as a replacement for oil and [[tallow]] produced light. It was in 1792 that he first began experimenting with the use of gas, derived from the heating of coal and other materials, for lighting. Many believe this experimenting took place in a cave. There is some uncertainty as to when he first demonstrated this process in practice; however, most sources identify this as between 1792 and 1794. About a decade before Murdoch, the Dutch-Belgian academic [[Jean-Pierre Minckelers]] was the first to use gas lighting on a practical scale.<ref name=tom>{{cite book|last1= Tomory|first1=Leslie|date=2 March 2012|title= Progressive Enlightenment: The Origins of the Gaslight Industry, 1780-1820|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=atfxCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA28|publisher= MIT Press|pages=28–30|isbn= 9780262300452}}</ref>
To use gas for practical purposes it was first necessary to develop a working method for the production and capture of the gas. There is considerable doubt as to the date by which this process was perfected. However, numerous accounts exist that by 1794 Murdoch was producing coal gas from a small [[retort]] containing heated coals with a three or four-foot iron tube attached, through which he piped the gas before sending it through an old gun barrel and igniting it to produce light.
[[
[[
Murdoch's house at Redruth was the first domestic residence to be lit by gas.<ref>Oxford Dictionary of National Biography article by John C. Griffiths, 'Murdock, William (1754–1839)',[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/19561], accessed 21 May 2007: About 1792, while residing at Redruth, Murdock began a series of experiments on the illuminating properties of gases produced by distilling coal, wood, peat, and suchlike. Initially he appears to have heated coal in a kettle with a thimble over the spout, and ignited the gas so produced. But by 1794 a much larger retort in his back yard allowed him to light his living room, as Francis Trevithick later wrote: ‘Those still live who saw the gas-pipes conveying gas from the retort in the little yard to near the ceiling of the room, just over the table. A hole for the pipe was made in the window-frame’ (F. Trevithick, Life of Richard Trevithick, with an account of his inventions, 2 vols. (1872), page 64).</ref>
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==Later years==
[[File:Thinktank Birmingham - object 1885S02633(1).jpg|thumb|left|Marble Bust of
▲[[File:Thinktank Birmingham - object 1885S02633(1).jpg|thumb|left|Marble Bust of Murdock by [[E. G. Papworth]] ]]
Murdoch wrote a paper, "Account of the Application of Gas from Coal to Economical Purposes" which was presented to the [[Royal Society]] in 1808. In that year he was awarded their [[Rumford Medal|Rumford Gold Medal]] for "both the first idea of applying, and the first actual application of gas to economical purposes".
In 1817 Murdoch moved into a large new house he had built outside Birmingham. The house incorporated a number of curiosities and innovations he has designed including gas lighting, a [[doorbell]] worked by compressed air and an [[air conditioning]] system: described by [[Joshua Field (engineer)|Joshua Field]] as "He has a good stove for heating the rooms with hot air which enters the rooms and staircases at convenient places." In 1815 he designed and installed the first gravity-fed, piped hot water system since classical times at the [[Royal Pump Rooms]], [[Leamington Spa]].
In September 1830, in declining health at age 76, Murdoch's partnership with Boulton & Watt which began in 1810 came to an end, at which point he was receiving £1,000 per year. The reasons for this appear to be both the increasing unprofitability of Boulton and Watt and Murdoch's increasing ill health. Murdoch died in 1839, aged 85. He was buried at [[St. Mary's Church, Handsworth]].
==Honours and awards==
At the celebration of the centenary of gas lighting in 1892, a bust of Murdoch was unveiled by [[Lord Kelvin]] in the [[Wallace Monument]], [[Stirling]], and there is also a bust of him by [[Francis Legatt Chantrey|Sir Francis Legatt Chantrey]] at [[St. Mary's Church, Handsworth|St. Mary's Church]].<ref>{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Murdock, William}}</ref>
His life and works are commemorated by the [[Lunar Society Moonstones|Moonstones]]; a [[Boulton, Watt and Murdoch|statue of him, Boulton and Watt]], by [[William Bloye]]; and ''Murdock Road'', all in [[Birmingham]]. There is also a ''Murdoch House'' in [[Rotherhithe]], London.{{Citation
The town of Redruth has an Annual Murdoch Day in June. The 2007 event included a parade of schoolchildren with banners on the theme "Earth, Wind, Fire and Water" and the first public journey of a full-size, working reproduction of Murdoch's Steam Carriage.<ref>''West Briton'' 21 June 2007 pp. 36–37 (Centre Spread) article by Jonathan Carter: "'Terrific' Murdoch Day battles the elements and wins".</ref>
In 2019, he was inducted into the [[Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame]].<ref>{{
==References==
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==External links==
{{commons}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050123233750/http://www.
* [http://www.williammurdoch.com William Murdoch - The Scot Who Lit The World] The Scot Who Lit The World book and DVD on the life and inventions of William Murdoch
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060514205345/http://www.birminghamstories.co.uk/story_page.php?id=11&type=fo&page=1&now=0 Murdoch's locomotive] (on the Birmingham Stories website)
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[[Category:1839 deaths]]
[[Category:Engineers from Cornwall]]
[[Category:Patternmakers (industrial)]]▼
[[Category:People from Cumnock]]▼
[[Category:People of the Industrial Revolution]]
[[Category:Scottish chemists]]
[[Category:Scottish engineers]]▼
[[Category:Scottish inventors]]▼
▲[[Category:People from Cumnock]]
▲[[Category:Patternmakers (industrial)]]
[[Category:Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame inductees]]
▲[[Category:Scottish inventors]]
▲[[Category:Scottish mechanical engineers]]
[[Category:People from Auchinleck]]
[[Category:People from Lugar, East Ayrshire]]
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