If you lived two or three centuries ago, you mostly lived in the dark. I don’t mean metaphorically; candles don’t produce much illumination, and in those days they were pretty expensive. There weren’t very many alternatives, either. Luckily for people who liked to stay up late or read at night, William Murdoch was born on August 21, 1754 in Scotland.
As a boy he excelled in math, and working with his father, who was a millwright (today’s term would be “mechanic”) taught him how to work with metal and wood. In 1763, when William was just 9, he built a “wooden horse on wheels” — a tricycle propelled by pedaling, but with your arms. It’s more impressive when you realize he had to fabricate every single piece of the device. Around Ayrshire, Scotland where Murdoch was born, there is still a story about a particular bridge over the River Nith. The story holds that William Murdoch built it (or was in charge of building it) when he was still a boy. There’s no documentation, but given Murdoch’s later accomplishments, it’s possible.
When Murdoch was 23, he walked to Birmingham, England to ask James Watt for a job. It’s more impressive when you realize that it was a 300 mile (480 km) trip. Murdoch got the job, but for an odd reason. He was wearing a wooden hat he’d made himself, using a lathe that he’d also made himself. He was soon working with Watt’s company building steam engines, and designed several improvements.
Everybody’s aware of the modern business plan where your customers don’t buy your products outright, but subscribe to them. Well, it turns out that business plan is not so modern after all; it’s the way the Boulton & Watt company provided their steam engines. A mine, for example, would contract with Boulton & Watt for “steam engine service” to power all the mining machinery, and Boulton & Watt would build and operate the equipment, and get paid through a formula based on the efficiency of the engine. Murdoch turned out to be the best builder and operator in the company, largely because he was able to boost the efficiency of the steam engines.
In addition to building, operating, and improving steam engines, Murdoch designed the planetary gear mechanism, the first compressed-air messaging system, a “steam cannon” that was evidently used in building demolitions, and various other machines and devices. He also built and demonstrated the UK’s first working model of a “steam carriage” that could drive on roads. He patented it, but whether he ever built a full-size version is not known for sure. There are stories that he did, but it’s also documented that his boss, James Watt, thought the whole idea a waste of time. It’s more impressive when you realize that Murdoch was doing all this work in what spare time he had.
Something else he did with his spare time was experimentation in chemistry. He created the basis for “aniline dyes and coatings,” although I have no clue what those might be. At the time there was a substance, isinglass, that was used for filtration when making beer or wine. It was very expensive, though, and Murdoch invented a similar material that was far cheaper. it was made of locally-available fish, so it became known as “Isinglass made of British fish.” Not the greatest name, but it was just as good as a filter.
You’re probably wondering why I started this whole thing by talking about light — it’s because yet another of Murdoch’s accomplishments was gas lighting. It wasn’t “natural gas” as we know it today; the gas was produced from processing coal. His own house was the first building to have gas lighting, and there are contemporary reports that he built a few portable gas-powered lanterns as well. This particular set of inventions, though, he never patented. He still worked for the Boulton & Watt company, and the company tried halfheartedly to get into the gas lighting business, but didn’t develop the market or the technology and gave up. Just a few years later, there were gasworks and gas lights all over England.
Murdoch built a new house outside Birmingham in 1817. It had a compressed-air doorbell, gas lighting, running hot and cold water, and air conditioning. It’s more impressive when you realize it was 1817. There are statues of Murdoch around Birmingham, where he did most of his work, and the Scottish town where he was born has an annual Murdoch Day. For some reason it’s not today though; they celebrate it in June.
