Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1883-12-13
A Memorial to William Murdoch.

\ project has been started in En-
gland for erecting public memorial
To William Murdoch, one of the great
est of modern inventors, whose tri-
umphs include the first primitive loco
motive made in England. At an early
age he was employed in running Watt
stationary engines, and displayed great
Skill and industry in these lahors. His
first effort To use steam for the purpose
To- which it is now so extensively APP
piled, was recently described by the
London Times as follows:
1T is related that after he had got
the first engine in the Whcal Union
ready for starting, the people in whose
house ne lodged at Redruth, heard a
great noise in the night. and found him
in nightmare hammering at his bedpost
and roaring: "Now she goes, lads.
1t was in 1884, about five years after he
went to Cornwall, that Murdoch con-
structed at Redruth a model of high
pressure engine to run on wheels. 1t
+. was about foot high, the boiler being
heated by spirit lamp. A dark night
was chosen for the trial of the machine
on lonely path leading TO the parish
church, about half mile from the
town, between high hedges. Murdoch
lit the lamp, and before he expected it
off dashed the engine. The village
parson happened to be coming down
the road, and suddenly meeting the
Kissing. fiery. headlong thing, the rev.
erend gentleman raised appalling cries,
and long alterward talked of the oc-
currencc rs having given him the
greatest emotion of his life. Unfortu-
natelv. after this experiment Murdoch 5
attempt in steam locomo,ion ceased.
On hearing of his success, Watt, who
was not always magnanimouS, evinced
uneasness. and being in Cornwall at
the time. ne wrote TO Boulton. urging
that Murjocli should be ordered 10 de-
sist from his undertaking; but Boulton
took another view of the matter, and
made m honest proposal to the young
Scotchman. He offered him .el00 to
prosecute his experiments. and prom
Used that if within Il year Murdoch con-
structed an engine capable of carrying
two persons and the driver, with 200
pounds of luggage, fuel for four hours
and water for two hours, the machine
to run at the rate of four miles an hour,
partnership in the enterprise should be
struck with the proprietors of Soho.
Murdock. however. was too much en-
crossed by his ordinary duties 10 be-
stow the proper amount of time and
thought To the pcrfecting of his inven-
ton, though he appears to have foreseen
all its possibilities. and to have been
sanguinc of succeeding with it some
day or other.
The idea which Murdoch developed
To this extent. and then abandoned, af-
ter having profitcd by his practical
knowledge of Watts stationary engine,
was subsequently expanded by Trevi-
thick, who was ut one time an assistant
of Murdock's, SO that in the early
English experiments, prior to the
marked success achieved by George
Stephenson, there seems to have been "A
connection which has probably never
been fully explained between the pro-
gressivc labors of Watt, Murdoch and
Trevithick. Murdock's permanent
claims TO distinction, however, rest on
very broad basis, as he devised many
useful appliances, including the first at.
mospheric railway, and he is now hon
ored in England Is man who first
demonstrated the possibility of using
gas on large scale with profitable
commercial results. After using gas
for years in his offices and cottage, he
constructed at Birmingham an appa-
ratus FOR making. storing, and purify.
ing gas, with view OF supplying fac
tories. No patent was applied Tor OF
GRANTED RuilLDdU A0c