Spring filled a Ditch that was there, and covered the Burning-place; I applied the lighted Candle to divers Parts of the Water contained in the said Ditch, and found, as I expected, that upon the Touch of the Candle and the Water the Flame was extinct.

Again, having taken up a Dish full of water at the flaming Place, and held the lighted Candle to it, it went out.  Yet I observed that the Water, at the Burning-place, did boil, and heave, like Water in a Pot upon the Fire, tho’ by putting my Hand into it, I could not perceive it so much as warm.

This Boiling I conceived to proceed from the Eruption of some bituminous or sulphureous Fumes; considering this Place was not above 30 or 40 Yards distant from the Mouth of a Coal-Pit there:  And indeed Wigan, Ashton, and the whole Country, for many Miles compass, is underlaid with Coal.  Then, applying my Hand to the Surface of the Burning-place of the Water, I found a strong Breath, as it were a Wind, to bear against my Hand.

When the Water was drained away, I applied the Candle to the Surface of the dry Earth, at the same Point where the Water burned before; the Fumes took fire, and burned very bright and vigorous.  The Cone of the Flame ascended a Foot and a half from the Superficies of the Earth; and the Basis of it was of the Compass of a Man’s Hat about the Brims.  I then caused a Bucket full of Water to be pour’d on the Fire, by which it was presently quenched.  I did not perceive the Flame to be discoloured like that of sulphurous Bodies, nor to have any manifest Scent with it.  The Fumes, when they broke out of the Earth, and press’d against my Hand, were not, to my best Remembrance, at all hot.

Turning again to Dr. Clayton’s experiments, we see that he pointed out striking and valuable properties of coal-gas but apparently gave no attention to its useful purposes.  Furthermore, his account appears to have attracted no particular notice at the time of its publication in 1739.  Dr. Richard Watson in 1767 described the results of experiments which he had been making with the products arising from the distillation of coal.  In his process he permitted the gas to ascend through curved tubes, and he particularly noted “its great inflammability as well as elasticity.”  He also observed that “it retained the former property after it had passed through a great quantity of water.”  His published account dealt with a variety of facts and computations pertaining to the quantities of coke, tar, etc., produced from different kinds of coal and was a scientific work of value, but apparently the usefulness of the property of inflammability of coal-gas did not occur to him.