carbonization was found too costly. The first mains also which were laid down under his direction, experience evinced to be too small, and therefore they were obliged to be changed for some that were much larger. These were indeed mortifying circumstances; but it is not improbable that these instances of failure in Mr. Clegg led to some of those great improvements in the art of Gas-lighting, which afterwards distinguished his meritorious career.

At the latter end of 1813, an accidental explosion occurred at the works in Westminster, in which Mr. Clegg was seriously injured; and the following is his own account of the circumstance:-"There was a vault near the gasometer, in which the lime machine belonging to the apparatus was contained; the workmen on letting the lime-water out of the vessel removed too great a quantity of it, and allowed the gas to escape at the valve, where the lime-water was drawn off into the vault. Where the light originated, I am not prepared to state; whether from some person coming in with a candle, or by a communication, from the flue of the retorts there was a connexion of that kind, I cannot say ; the effect of it was, that it blew my hat off my head, and destroyed it, and blew it all to pieces, and knocked down two nine-inch walls, and injured me very much at the time, and burnt all the

skin of my face, and the hair off my head, and I was laid up a fortnight or three weeks by it. I was the only one hurt on the premises."* In consequence of this accident, a committee of the Royal Society was appointed to inquire into the cause of it. Their investigation and report were probably conducive to the advantage of both Gaslight establishments and the public, by leading to some useful alterations and new modifications in

its apparatus and machinery. About this time the City of London Gas-light Company was estabished, and two others were projected for the metropolis, one of them in Southwark, the other in its eastern district.

CHAPTER IX.

THE CHARTERED COMPANY AUGMENT THEIR CAPITAL TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND POUNDS. THE INVENTIONS OF MR. CLEGG, FOR WHICH HE OBTAINED HIS FIRST PATENT IN 1816.

We are now arrived at an era when the current of public opinion was strongly turning in favour

* Evidence to the committee of the House of Commons, 1823.

of the new mode of lighting; for as the knowledge of the properties of the gases had become more widely diffused, the prejudices which had formerly prevented its adoption had been gradually obviated. The clouds which had so long obscured the prospects of the Chartered Company began to disperse, and to disappear ;* and let it be recorded to the praise of those who conducted their affairs, that disappointments had never interrupted the course of their exertions, nor abated their ardour in the pursuit of their object. Moreover, they had now engaged in their service those who united the resources of science and art; their operations were conducted on the grandest scale, and directed with great ability. As their establishments had been considerably enlarged, and were constantly extending, a proportionate increase of pecuniary means became requisite; and, consequently, in 1816, they applied to Parliament for power to augment the amount of their capital £200,000,

* When the company had extended their mains from Curtain Road to the middle of the City, the directors and proprietors had a great meeting, and dined together at the New London tavern, to celebrate their success. On this occasion they made a very splendid and attractive illumination by gas; and this exhibition not only caused a great number of applications for the gas, but of course increased the value of their shares.

which they readily obtained; but an additional restriction was then imposed upon them-for their proceedings were subjected to the inspection and controul of the Secretary of State for the Home department.*

Coal gas had formerly been experimented upon chiefly as a subject of philosophical curiosity, but at this period its obvious utility had increased the estimate of its importance, and bestowed upon it a new character. Various considerations induced men of science carefully and rigidly to scrutinize its elements; the expectation of great pecuniary advantages prompted ingenious and skilful mechanics to aim at improving the apparatus employed in the operations of making and purifying it, and hence arose a great diversity of schemes, several of which exhibited the talents of the inventors. Patents were obtained for some of them;

* Experience had now demonstrated the delusive nature of the statements of Mr. Winsor, for the Company on this occasion proved in evidence that they "could not afford to light the streets at the price for which they contract, without also lighting private houses on an extended scale." But their advances in improvement are particularly noticed in the Annals of Philosophy for this year. The editor observes, “that the Chartered Gas Company of London have lately very much increased the gaseous product from coal, by distilling a second time the tar which is obtained during the first distillation." Annals of Philosophy, 1816, page 158.

but in fact this may not be improperly designated as the era of patents with respect to Gas-lighting; and the novelty of the art afforded a wide scope for the exercise of ingenuity. The person who first distinguished himself in this way was Mr. Samuel Clegg; and probably it was a fortunate circumstance, not only for the public and the mechanical arts, but also for the Chartered Company, that a person possessed of so much talent and skill should have become the active superintendent of their large establishments, at such an interesting crisis of their progress.* In December, 1816, he obtained the patent for his horizontal rotative retort; apparatus for purifying coal gas with cream of lime; rotative gas meter; and self-acting governor.† All these were important inventions, or improvements; and though some of them have since been rendered more perfect and effective, they essentially contributed to the service of the art, by

* Their establishments at Brick Lane and Curtain Road, equal, if not surpass, any in the kingdom, in the skill of their management, and the correctness of their details; and their present works in Horse-ferry Road (formerly Peter Street) are now perhaps more extensive than any of the kind. They are equally calculated to gratify the philosopher and the artisan; and are, indeed, upon so large a scale as justly to entitle them to the epithet magnificent.

+ The specification will be found in the Repertory of Arts, Vol. XXX., 1817.