Murdoch (or Murdock), William (1754-1839)

Scottish inventor and technician. Employed by James Watt and Matthew Boulton to build steam engines, he was the first to develop gas lighting on a commercial scale, holding the gas in gasometers, from the 1790s.

Murdoch was born in Auchinleck, Ayrshire. Between 1777 and 1830 he worked for Boulton and Watt, mainly in Birmingham and Cornwall.

In 1792, Murdoch lighted his house in Redruth, Cornwall, by gases produced by distilling coal or wood, but it was not until about 1799 that he perfected methods for making, storing, and purifying gas. Watt and Boulton's Birmingham factory was lit by gas from 1802-03, and the manufacture of gasmaking plant seems to have begun about this period. A paper Murdoch read before the Royal Society in 1808 is the earliest practical essay on the subject.

Murdoch made improvements to the steam engine, though he failed to persuade Boulton and Watt that a steam carriage was a practical idea. He was the first to devise an oscillating engine, about 1784. He also experimented with compressed air, and in 1803 constructed a steam gun.