Footnotes

Provenance.
Sold in these rooms 14th June 2005, lot 149. At that time, the vendor had acquired this regulator from a direct descendant of William Murdock in the late 1970s and while no primary source evidence exists to conclusively prove that this was designed by Murdock for his personal use, the volume of evidence is extremely compelling.

It is unlike any regulator made by a traditionally trained clockmaker; the plates are placed much closer together than usual, the pinions are of a far higher count, the maintaining power is of a most unusual form. The greatwheel has 360 teeth, is much larger than normal and in fact bears closer similarities to contemporary scientific and nautical instruments than horology. The cast iron seatboard and pendulum bracket have a distinctly 'engineered' feel to them and the latter is very similar in form to a bracket used on Murdock's oscillating cylinder engine of 1785, a replica of which is on display in the Science Museum, London.

William Murdock (1754 - 1839)
William Murdock was born in the village of Lugar, near Auchinleck, 25 miles south of Glasgow. His father, John, was a miller and wheelwright with an original engineering mind. He constructed a wooden tricycle and in about 1766 designed and installed the first cast iron toothed, bevelled millgearing at Bellow Mill. The mill was situated just next to the Murdock family home and it is highly likely that the 16 year old William helped his father with this and much of his other practical work. The local Laird was Alexander Boswell, the father of James, best known as companion to and biographer of Dr. Samuel Johnson. It is recorded that Boswell visited Matthew Boulton at his Soho House in Birmingham and it is quite likely that Boswell mentioned the local Murdock family as gifted engineers.

In 1777, the 23 year old William walked over 250 miles to the Watt and Boulton factory at Soho in Birmingham in the hope of employment, possibly following a recommendation from Boswell. He began his career working in the pattern shop on a wage of 15 shillings a week, rising to 18 shillings a week if he had to work away from Soho.

By 1779 Boulton had enough confidence in Murdock to send him to Wanlockhead, the highest village in Scotland to erect an engine to pump water from the bottom of a lead mine some 120 feet deep. On 22nd March 1779, Boulton wrote to the mine owner "We have this night dispatched William Murdock by the Sheffield coach with orders to proceed through Carlisle to Wanlockhead without delay.....He hath a good deal of experience in our engines and is capable of putting your people to rights in any matter they may not understand and we doubt not but he will acquit himself to you and to our satisfaction as he is a man we have a good opinion of. Pray don't keep him longer than necessary as we want him in Cornwall."

Cornwall was crucial to Boulton and Watt; not only was the copper mined there the main raw material for their mint and other foundry work, but they had supplied a huge number of engines to the mine owners that had to be kept running. If a machine failed, it could literally be a matter of life and death for the miners and financial ruin for the mine owners. It was Murdock's job to keep this part of the country running efficiently, furthermore, in such a competitive market, he had to ensure that no other owners were using engines that violated the company patents. The latter part of this work could often lead to trouble for Murdock; he was required to submit affidavits against mine owners and there are known instances of Murdoch physically coming to blows with members of a disgruntled mining community. James Watt had overseen Cornwall before Murdock and had personal knowledge of how high tempers could rise; in a letter to Murdoch in 1789 he advised "We think that you should not stay at Redruth but at Truro or Saint Austle until these rogues are quieted and take care not to be in their way at night....". Despite some minor local risings, Murdoch had a great affection for Cornwall and was a shareholder in some of the mines that used the Boulton and Watt engines.

When not beset by human problems with aggrieved miners, Murdock was paid to sort mechanical ones and in several instances it is understood that he modified some of Watts' engines to improve performance. In the 1790s Boulton wrote to Watt "Murdock seems indefatigable....everyone seems helpless in comparison of him" and "We want more Murdocks, for of all others he is the most active man and best engine erector I ever saw....when I look at the work done it astonishes me and is entirely owing to the spirit and activity of Murdock..."

Murdock's father had designed a tricycle and William wanted to take this a stage further and apply steam power to a road contraption. In 1784 he constructed a three-wheeled carriage, a replica of which is currently on display in the Birmingham Museum of Science and Discovery. It is now known that despite little encouragement from either Boulton or Watt, Murdcok went on to make various other carriages. Unfortunately, the concept never really captured the public imagination.

Other inventions and discoveries of note include the 'Sun and Planet' gear system, the long-D slide valve, the oscillating marine engine and various coal tar products such as aniline dyes.

Murdock's greatest single contribution to the world is his discovery of gas lighting. It had long been noted that when particular types of coal burned they gave off a flammable gas. Murdock conducted many experiments with various types of coal combined with pipes and apertures of differents designs and by 1794 had reached the stage where he could illuminate his own house with gas light. Just as he did with his steam powered tricycle, he approached his employers for encouragement, but again, they either failed to see the potential or felt that their energy was better spent on their core business. Disappointed, Murdock returned to Scotland for a brief time but in 1798 returned to Birmingham to take up the post of manager of the Soho Works on a salary of £1000 per annum.

In this new role, he pressed ahead with gas lighting and within 3 years had rigged the Soho building to be lit entirely by gas; a public demonstration using over 2500 lights was given in March 1802 to celebrate the Peace of Amiens. In 1805/7 he installed gas lighting in the Salford cotton spinning mill of Phillips and Lee. In a report to the Parliamentary Commission in later years, Lee wrote "..the cost of gas was not more than 50% of that of oil and 70% of the cost of tallow while the light obtained was much more brilliant, much steadier and cleanlier in use." (sic) In 1808 Murdock was presented with the Royal Society Rumford gold medal as "the author of the most important or useful discovery which shall be made published.. in heat and light."


William Murdock died on 15th November 1839 and is buried near to James Watt and Matthew Boulton in the crypt of the Church of St. Mary, Handsworth

As the 19th century progressed, so did the spread of gas lighting, in Britain and on the World stage; it changed the working and leisure lives of countless hundreds of thousands of people and proved to be one of the major innovations of the 19th century. It is tempting to imagine the great man checking the time of this regulator by gas light of an evening.


Bibliography:
'Antiquarian Horology' ~September 2003, vol 27 number 5 pages 502-508.
'The Scot who lit the world, the story of William Murdock inventor of gas lighting', Janet Thomson, 2003
Catalogue of the International Bi-centenary Exhibition, 'William Murdock 1754-1839', City of Birmingham Museum of Science and Industry.
'Men of Invention and Industry', Samuel Smiles, John Murray 1884.
'The Lunar Men' Jenny Uglow, Faber and Faber
'Cornish Inventors' Carolyn Martin, Tor Mark Press
'The Third Man - The Life and Times of William Murdoch 1754-1839 The Inventor of Gas Lighting', John Griffiths, Andre Deutsch
'William Murdoch Mechanician, Maverick and Medallist', John Richard Taylor, Midlands Gas Association