The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1883-11-23
The Daily Bulletin.
A Memorial to William Murdoch.

A project has been started in En-.
gland for erecting a public memorial
to William Murdoch, one of the great
est of modern inventors, whose trl-
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 labors. 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 Wheal Union
ready for starting, the people in whose
house he lodged at Redruth, heard
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 model of high
pressure engine to run on wheels III
was about foot high, the boiler being
heated by a spirit lamp. a dark night
was chosen for the trial of the machine
on lonely path leading to the parish
church, about half a 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 afterward talked of the oc-
currence as having given him the
greatest emotion of his life. Unfortu-
nately, after this experiment MurdOck's
attempt in steam locomotion ceased.
On hearing of his success, Watt, who
was not always magnanimous, eylnced
uneasiness, and being in Cornwall at
the time, he wrote to Boulton, urging
that Murdoch should be ordered to de-
sist from his undertaking; but Boulton
took another view of the matter, and
made an honest proposal to the young
Scotchman. He offered him tl00 to
prosecute his experiments, and prom
ised that if within a 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
Murdoch, however, was too much en-
crossed by his ordinary duties to be-
stow the proper amount OF time and
thought to the perfecling of his inven-
ton, though he appears to have foreseen
all its possibilities, and to have been
sanguine of succeeding with it some
day or other.
The idea which Murdock developed
to this extent, and then abandoned. af-
ter having protited 10y his practical
knowledge Of Watts stationary engine
was subsequently expanded by Trevi-
thick, who was at one time an assistant
of Murdoch ), so that in the early
English experiments, prior to the
marked success achieved by George
Stephenson, there seems to have been q
connection which has probably never
been fully explained between the pro-
gressive labors Of Watt, Murdoch and
Trevthick. Murdoch permanent
claims to distinction, however, rest on
q very broad basis, as he devised many
useful appliances, including the first at
mospheric railway, and he is now hon
Ored in England as man who first
demonstrated the possibility of using
gas on a large scale with profitable
commercial results, After using gas
for years in his Offices and cottage, he
constructed at Birmingham an appa-
ratus Tor making, storing, and purify
ing gas, with a view OF supplying fac
tories. No patent was applied for or
granted.-Railcay Age.