Note 357 — Chapter XX · Prosperity of Soho—Young Boulton and Watt—The Riots—William Murdock.

The invention of lighting by gas has by some writers been erroneously attributed to Winsor. It will be observed, from the statement in the text, that coal-gas had been in regular use long before the appearance of his scheme, which was one of the most crude and inflated ever brought before the public. “The Patriotic Imperial and National Light and Heat Company,” proposed amongst other things to aid and assist Government with funds in times of emergency, to increase the Sinking-fund for reducing the National Debt, to reward meritorious discoverers, &c. &c. Some idea of the character of the project may be formed from Mr. [Lord] Brougham’s speech in opening the case against the Bill:—“‘The neat annual profits,’ says Mr. Winsor, ‘agreeable to the official experiments’ (that is, the experiments of Mr. Accum....) ‘amount to 229,353,627l.’ ... now Mr. Winsor says, that he will allow there may be an error here, for the sake of arguing with those who still have their doubts; and he will admit that the sum should be taken at only one half, or 114,845,294l.; and then giving up, to meet all possible objections, nine-tenths of that sum, still there will remain, to be paid to the subscribers of this Company, a yearly profit of 570l. for every 5l. of deposit! So that upon paying 5l. every subscriber is to receive 570l. a year for ever, and this to the last farthing; it may increase but less it can never be; the clear profit is always to be above 10,000l. per cent. upon the capital! This is pretty well, sir, one would think. There is here estimate and statement enough to captivate the public; but this is not all; for Mr. Winsor has taken out a patent (of which, indeed, he has, according to his custom, enrolled no specification, but, on the contrary, has enrolled a surrender) for the invention of several things, and, among others, one for rendering this gas respirable. It is not enough that this gas (which everybody knows to be not respirable, but as poisonous to the lungs as fixed air) should be capable of giving light; but he thinks it also necessary to prove that it may easily be rendered respirable; in short, that there is no way in which it may not be used, and nothing which may not be made of it.... In another pamphlet.... Mr. Winsor endeavours to prove that this gas is the vital principle; that in which life itself consists. If I had taken the trouble to go through his publications, which I certainly have not done, it is hard to say what I might not have discovered; but I should think the difficulty would rather be, to find one quality which the gas is not stated to possess.”