Murdock was also the inventor of the well-known cast-iron cement, so extensively used in engine and machine work. The manner in which he was led to this invention affords a striking illustration of his quickness of observation. Finding that some iron-borings and sal-ammoniac had got accidently mixed together in his tool-chest, and rusted his saw-blade nearly through, he took note of the circumstance, mixed the articles in various proportions, and at length arrived at the famous cement, which eventually became an article of extensive manufacture at the Soho Works.
Murdock's ingenuity was constantly at work, even upon matters which lay entirely outside his special vocation. The late Sir William Fairbairn informed us that he contrived a variety of curious machines for consolidating peat moss, finely ground and pulverised, under immense pressure, and which, when consolidated, could be moulded into beautiful medals, armlets, and necklaces.
The material took the most brilliant polish and had the appearance of the finest jet.
Observing that fish-skins might be used as an economical substitute for isinglass, he went up to London on one occasion in order to explain to brewers the best method of preparing and using them. He occupied handsome apartments, and, little regarding the splendour of the drawing-room, he hung the fish-skins up against the walls. His landlady caught him one day when he was about to bang up a wet cod's skin! He was turned out at once, with all his fish. While in town on this errand, it occurred to him that a great deal of power was wasted in treading the streets of London! He conceived the idea of using the streets and roadways as a grand tread-mill, under which the waste power might be stored up by mechanical methods and turned to account. He had also an idea of storing up the power of the tides, and of running water, in the same way. The late Charles Babbage, F.R.S., entertained a similar idea about using springs of Ischia or of the geysers of Iceland as a power necessary for condensing gases, or perhaps for the storage of electricity.Fletcher's Political Works, London, 1737, p. 149,One of the Murdocks built the cathedral at Glasgow, as well as others in Scotland. The famous school of masonry at Antwerp sent out a number of excellent architects during the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries. One of these, on coming into Scotland, assumed the name of Murdo. He was a Frenchman, born in Paris, as we learn from the inscription left on Melrose Abbey, and he died while building that noble work: it is as follows:--"John Murdo sumtyme cait was I And born in Peryse certainly, An'
had in kepyng all mason wark Sanct Andrays, the Hye Kirk o'Glasgo, Melrose and Paisley, Jedybro and Galowy. Pray to God and Mary baith, and sweet Saint John, keep this Holy Kirk frae scaith."The discovery of the Black Band Ironstone by David Mushet in 1801, and the invention of the Hot Blast by James Beaumont Neilson in 1828, will be found related in Industrial Biography, pp. 141-161.
Note to Lockhart's Life of Scott.
This was stated to the present writer some years ago by William Murdock's son; although there is no other record of the event.
See Lives of Engineers (Boulton and Watt), iv. pp. 182-4.
Small edition, pp. 130-2.
Mr. Pearse's letter is dated 23rd April, 1867, but has not before been published. He adds that "others remembered Murdock, one who was an apprentice with him, and lived with him for some time--a Mr. Vivian, of the foundry at Luckingmill."Murdock's house still stands in Cross Street, Redruth; those still live who saw the gas-pipes conveying gas from the retort in the little yard to near the ceiling of the room, just over the table; a hole for the pipe was made in the window frame. The old window is now replaced by a new frame."--Life of Richard Trevithick, i. 64.
Philosophical Transactions, 1808, pp. l24-l32.
Winsor's family evidently believed in his great powers; for I am informed by Francis Galton, Esq., F.R.S., that there is a fantastical monument on the right-hand side of the central avenue of the Kensal Green Cemetery, about half way between the lodge and the church, which bears the following inscription:--"Tomb of Frederick Albert Winsor, son of the late Frederick Albert Winsor, originator of public Gas-lighting, buried in the Cemetery of Pere la Chaise, Paris. "At evening time it shall be light.--Zachariah xiv. 7. "I am come a light into the world, that whoever believeth in Me shall not abide in darkness.--John xii. 46."Mr. Parkes, in his well known Chemical Essays (ed. 1841, p.
157), after referring to the successful lighting up by Murdock of the manufactory of Messrs. Phillips and Lee at Manchester in 1805, "with coal gas issuing from nearly a thousand burners,"proceeds, "This grand application of the new principle satisfied the public mind, not only of the practicability, but also of the economy of the application; and as a mark of the high opinion they entertained of his genius and perseverance, and in order to put the question of priority of the discovery beyond all doubt, the Council of the Royal Society in 1808 awarded to Mr. Murdock the Gold Medal founded by the late Count Rumford.""Thus," says Mr. Charles Babbage, "in a future age, power may become the staple commodity of the Icelanders, and of the inhabitants of other volcanic districts; and possibly the very process by which they will procure this article of exchange for the luxuries of happier climates may, in some measure, tame the tremendous element which occasionally devastates their provinces."--Economy of Manufactures.
