William Murdoch

Each major claim carries one of three labels. established means supported by primary records, official bodies or several independent reliable sources. shared means the core fact is sound but sources disagree on details, dates or interpretation. traditional means widely repeated but not traceable to a primary or independent source.

Murdoch's work is recorded in the Boulton and Watt papers, his patents, and the Royal Society. Because he worked as an employee, some of his ideas were patented in other names, which makes credit hard to assign. Several colourful stories about him come from later biographies rather than from records of the time.

From Bello Mill to Soho

established Murdoch was born on 21 August 1754 at Bello Mill, near Old Cumnock in Ayrshire, where his father was a millwright. In 1777 he went to Birmingham to seek work with James Watt and was taken on by Boulton and Watt at the Soho works. In England he later spelled his name "Murdock".

traditional He is said to have walked all the way from Ayrshire, and Matthew Boulton is said to have hired him after admiring a wooden hat he had turned on a lathe of his own making. The stories are often repeated but come from later accounts.

In the Cornish mines

established In September 1779 Boulton and Watt sent Murdoch to Redruth in Cornwall as their senior engine erector. For nearly 20 years he installed and maintained the steam engines that pumped water from the tin and copper mines, work on which the firm's income depended.

Mechanical inventions

shared Watt patented the sun-and-planet gear, which turned the up-and-down motion of a beam engine into rotary motion, in October 1781. It is credited to Murdoch on the evidence of a drawing in his hand dated August 1781.

established Murdoch invented an iron cement for sealing steam-engine joints in 1782 and patented the long D slide valve in 1799. He also developed an early system for sending messages through tubes by compressed air.

The steam carriage

established In 1784 Murdoch built a working model of a steam carriage, and he went on making models into the 1790s.

traditional According to a famous story, Murdoch's steam carriage ran away one night at Redruth and terrified the local clergyman, who took it for the devil. If the story has any basis, it more likely involved a small model than a full-size vehicle.

Light from coal

established In the early 1790s Murdoch experimented with gas made by heating coal, and in about 1792 he lit his house at Redruth with it, reputedly the first home lit by gas. In 1795 he demonstrated gas production, storage and lighting at Neath Abbey Ironworks. After returning to Birmingham in 1798, he lit the outside of the Soho works in 1802 to celebrate the Peace of Amiens. In 1805 the Philips and Lee cotton mill in Manchester was fully lit by gas. In 1808 Murdoch published a paper on gas lighting and received the Royal Society's Rumford Medal.

Partner and old age

established Murdoch became a partner in Boulton and Watt in 1810 and retired in 1830, aged 76. He died at Handsworth on 15 November 1839, aged 85, and is buried at St Mary's Church, Handsworth, where Matthew Boulton and James Watt are also buried. A gilded statue of Boulton, Watt and Murdoch by William Bloye stands in Birmingham.

• Murdoch was the son of an Ayrshire millwright.
• He spelled his name "Murdock" after settling in England.
• He spent nearly 20 years keeping steam engines running in the Cornish mines.
• The sun-and-planet gear credited to him was patented in Watt's name.
• He built a model steam carriage in 1784.
• His house in Redruth was reputedly the first lit by gas.
• He won the Royal Society's Rumford Medal in 1808.
• He is buried in the same church as Boulton and Watt.

• Do not say Murdoch was the first person ever to make gas from coal; his achievement was practical gas lighting.
• Do not present the wooden hat or the clergyman stories as established fact.
• Do not say Murdoch built a full-size steam carriage; the documented ones are models.
• Do not call the sun-and-planet gear Watt's invention without noting Murdoch's claim.