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Fostering a new industry in the Industrial Revolution: Boulton & Watt and gaslight 1800–1812

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 June 2012

LESLIE TOMORY
LESLIE TOMORY*
Affiliation:
McGill University, 1380 Pine Avenue West, Montreal, QC, H3G1A8, Canada. Email: [email protected].
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Abstract

Gaslight emerged as a new industry after 1800 in Britain, but not in other countries in Europe where the technology existed as well. Among the many groups trying, it was only the firm of Boulton & Watt that succeeded in commercializing the invention for two important reasons. The first was that they possessed skills and experience related to ironworking and to making scientific instruments, both of which they used as they developed gaslight apparatus. This development involved an extensive series of experiments that ultimately had its root in James Watt's own work with pneumatic chemistry. The second reason was that they possessed many resources such as access to capital, their existing network of industrial customers, and their abilities to publicize their work. As with the steam engine, the firm proved adept at advertising. Boulton & Watt did not give their full attention to gaslight except in two spurts between 1805 and 1809, and by around 1812 they had lost almost all interest in the technology. By this time, however, they had solved many problems associated with scaling up gaslight apparatus for industrial use, they had trained many people who would go on to do further important work in the early years of the industry, and they had drawn extensive public attention to the new invention. Finally, their advertising involved elevating the status of William Murdoch as an inventor while minimizing the role of the firm.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal for the History of Science , Volume 46 , Issue 2 , June 2013 , pp. 199 - 229
Copyright
Copyright © British Society for the History of Science 2012 

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72 James Watt junior to Matthew Robinson Boulton, 3 March 1806, BWA MS 3147/3/55 #5. J. Douglas & Co. (Holywell): James Watt junior to Matthew Robinson Boulton, 8 March 1806, BWA MS 3147/3/55 #7. Daintry & Co.: James Watt junior to Matthew Robinson Boulton, 12 March 1806, BWA MS 3147/3/55 #8. See also James Watt junior notebook, BWA MS 3147/4/5, which has sizing calculations from late February and early March 1806 for Oldham, Birley & Marsland, James Kennedy, Greg & Ewart, McConnel & Kennedy, Pooley, Wood & Daintry, Douglas (Pendleton and Holywell), Garside & Butterfield, Horrocks, Strutt, Peel, Wormald & Gott (several mills) and Radcliffe & Ross, and a few illegible ones.

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85 BWA MS 3147/3/539 #38.

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98 Memorandum respecting Mr Lee's Photogenous Apparatus, 2 June 1807, BWA MS 3147/3/478 #16.

99 James Watt junior to James Watt, 4 June 1807, BWA MII/13/1.

100 James Watt to James Watt junior, 9 June 1807, BWA MIV Box 16/15.

101 Henry Creighton to B&W, 25 January 1808, BWA MS 3147/3/247 #43 p. 3. ‘Experiments on the new light’, January 1808, BWA MS 3147/3/479 #11. These are press copies of notes taken during the experiments. They are almost completely illegible.

102 Henry Creighton to B&W, 28 December 1807, BWA MS 3147/3/247 #40a.

103 This is derived from 1.26 cubic feet for 3.5 candles (1805), and 1.5 cubic feet for three candles (1806).

104 George Augustus Lee to B&W, 28 December 1807, BWA MS 3147/3/247 #40b.

105 James Watt junior to Henry Creighton, 19 January 1808, BWA MS 3147/3/478 #17.

106 ‘Memorandum respecting Mr Lee's Photogenous Apparatus’, 2 June 1807, BWA MS 3147/3/478 #16. Creighton's new figures are in Henry Creighton to B&W, 25 January 1808, BWA MS 3147/3/478 #18 pp. 4–5.

107 Memorandum respecting Mr Lee's Photogenous Apparatus, 19 January 1808, BWA MS 3147/3/478 #18. This letter gives 629 cockspur and 275 Argand, but Creighton corrects himself in Henry Creighton to B&W, 25 January 1808, BWA MS 3147/3/478 #18. pp. 4–5. The correct values were used in Murdoch's 1808 Royal Society paper.

108 James Watt junior to George Augustus Lee, 23 January 1808, BWA MS 3147/3/478 #17.

109 James Watt junior to Henry Creighton, 27 January 1808, BWA MS 3147/3/478 #18.

110 Henry Creighton to B&W, 29 January 1808, BWA MS 3147/3/247 #44, also mentioned in BWA MS 3147/3/478 #18. George Augustus Lee to James Watt junior, 4 February 1808, BWA MS 3147/3/478 #18.

111 Murdoch, op. cit. (96), p. 128.

112 Murdoch, op. cit. (96), p. 126.

113 Edwards, John Richard, A History of Financial Accounting, London: Routledge, 1989, pp. 83–85Google Scholar.

114 Griffiths, op. cit. (15), pp. 224–249 for summary of what Wilson found. Thomas Wilson to B&W, 27 and 29 January 1808, BWA MS 3147/3/363 #10 and 11.

115 Draft of Royal Society paper, 22 February 1808, BWA MS 3147/3/480 #24.

116 James Watt junior to James Watt, 26 February 1808, BWA Muirhead II, hereafter MII/13/2.

117 Griffiths, op. cit. (15), p. 261. Matthew Robinson Boulton to Joseph Banks, 26 December 1808, BWA Lunar Society #149; James Watt junior to Joseph Banks[?], 18 January 1809, BWA JWP 6/65 p. 288.

118 The publications are: Annual Review and History of Literature, for 1808, 7, p. 703; Annual Register, Or, A View of the History, Politics, and Literature for the Year 1808, p. 131; The Athenaeum (April 1808), 3(16), p. 372 and (August 1808) 4(20), pp. 153–155; Belfast Monthly Magazine (December 1808), 1(4), pp. 280–281; British Critic: A New Review (March 1809), 33, p. 258; Critical Review, or, Annals of Literature (January 1809) 16(1), p. 33; Eclectic Review (May 1809) 5(1), p. 443; Journal of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry and the Arts (October 1808) 21(92), p. 94; Literary Panorama (September 1808) 4, pp. 1157–1160; Monthly Magazine (1 January 1809) 26, p. 546; New Annual Register, or General Repository … for the year 1808 (1809), p. 250; Philosophical Magazine (December 1808) 32(127), p. 113; Repertory of Patent Inventions (September 1808) 2nd series, 13(76), p. 262; Retrospect of philosophical, Mechanical, Chemical, and Agricultural Discoveries (1809) 4, p. 198; Universal Magazine (1808) 10, p. 58; Scots Magazine and Edinburgh Literary Miscellany (1808) 70(2), pp. 819–823.

119 Werrett, op. cit. (97).

120 ‘An account of the application of gas from coal to economical purposes, by Mr Wm. Murdoch’, The Athenaeum, a Magazine of Literary and Miscellaneous Information (1808) 4(20), pp. 153–155, 154.

121 Henry Creighton to B&W, 10 January 1808, BWA MS 3147/3/247 #41.

122 Henry Creighton to B&W, 23 February 1809, BWA MS 3147/3/247 #66. Lighting apparatuses per agreement 30 Sep 1809 to 30 Sep 1810, BWA MII/7/4: addition 1809 December 30 for £93; Bill for three retorts 1810 August 11, BWA MS 3147/5/817/14; Lighting apparatuses per agreement 30 Sep 1809 to 30 Sep 1810, BWA MII/7/4: two retorts 17 August 1810 for £25.17, retort and additional apparatus 18 September 1810 for £61.2.

123 Henry Creighton to B&W, 10 and 14 February 1809, BWA MS 3147/3/247 #64 and #65. Matthew Robinson Boulton to James Watt junior, 21 November 1808, BWA MIV/B6. James Watt junior to John Southern, 9 December 1808, BWA MS 3147/3/60 #15. Retorts 16 December 1808, BWA MS 3147/5/813/9; Gasometer and plans, 20 December 1808, BWA MS 3147/5/812/1 and 6; Plan of Burley Mill, 21 December 1808, BWA MS 3147/3/478 #48.

124 See Falkus, op. cit. (16), p. 224, for a summary.

125 Ground plans, 15 March 1815, BWA MS 3147/5/808/2 and 3.

126 Henry Creighton to William Creighton, 2 December 1815, cited in Tann, op. cit. (82), p. 67.

127 James Watt junior to Matthew Robinson Boulton, 20 April 1809, BWA Lunar Society #118.

128 George Augustus Lee to James Watt junior, 7 December 1808, BWA MIV/L6.

129 George Augustus Lee to James Watt junior, 7 December 1808, BWA MIV/L6.

130 ‘Specification of the Patent Granted to Edward Heard, of London, Chemist, for a Discovery of Certain Means of Obtaining Inflammable Gas from Pit-Coal in Such a State That It May Be Burned Without Producing Any Offensive Smell’, Repertory of Arts, Manufactures, and Agriculture (1807) 2nd series 10(56), pp. 31–32. ‘Mr Edward Heard's Discovery’, Monthly Magazine, or, British Register (1807) 23(1), 67.

131 Clegg, op. cit. (39), p. 13, claimed they never used it, but he is partial to his father. Matthews, op. cit. (42), p. 25, claims Boulton & Watt used quicklime at some point, but ‘very imperfectly’. I have found no mention of lime purification in the archives.

132 Stirling Everard, The History of the Gas Light and Coke Company, 1812–1949, London: Benn, 1949. Tomory, op. cit. (17).

133 H. Philip Spratt, ‘The marine steam-engine’, in Singer et al., op. cit. (15). Eric Robinson, ‘Watt, James (1769–1848)’, in ODNB.

134 George Augustus Lee to James Watt junior, 28 October 1813, BWA MIV/L6.

135 Tomory, op. cit. (26).

136 Divall, Colin and Johnston, Sean, Scaling Up: The Institution of Chemical Engineers and the Rise of a New Profession, Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000, p. 80Google Scholar. Rosenberg, Nathan, Exploring the Black Box: Technology, Economics, and History, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994, pp. 191–200Google Scholar. Rosenberg, Nathan, Landau, Ralph and Mowery, David C., Technology and the Wealth of Nations, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1992, pp. 76–116Google Scholar.

137 Wright, Thomas, ‘Scale models, similitude and dimensions: aspects of mid-nineteenth-century engineering science’, Annals of Science (1992) 49, pp. 233–254Google Scholar.