William Murdoch - Famous Scots



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Famous Scots: William Murdoch

Born

1754, Auchenleck, Ayrshire

Died

1839

William's father John (like his father) had been a master gunner with the army. John was an excellent mechanic and practical engineer. William learned much from his father. While cow herding as a boy he dug coal from a hillside and was fascinated by the imflammable vapours which it gave of when heated - this obsession would prove his road to riches in later life.
In his mid-20s, William walked all the way from Ayrshire to the Birmingham Soho works of the great James Watt and Matthew Boulton on spec of getting employment. Watt was abscent at the time of William's interview. Nervously, William dropped his top hat which appeared rather heavy. Boulton enquired and on hearing that it had been made on a lathe which William had built himself he was given a job there and then!
It was soon realised what a genius William was and he was sent off to Cornwall to tend to the company's steam engine business in the tin mines. In 1785 he built the first road going 'car' - a steam tricycle which terrorised the inhabitants of Redruth. William wanted to mount a steam 'car' on rails but his company told him moving engines couldn't possibly have any future - and it didn't, for another 30 years.
He continued to experiment with coal gas. Around 1795 he had managed to light his house in Redruth by gas. In 1802 the company factory in Birmingham had it's front lit for the treaty of Amiens. The first big order was for a 1000 burner system for a Manchester factory. By 1813 Westminster Bridge in London was lit up.
William is probably unique among Scots by being declared a Deity. Nassred-din, Shah of Persia believed he must have been the re-incarnation of Marduk god of light!
Decent urban light had a dramatic effect of society. For the first time it became relatively safe to go out after dark. The world was never the same again.