The peculiar softness and clearness of this light with its almost unvarying intensity, have brought it into great favour with the work people.  And its being free from the inconvenience and danger, resulting from sparks and frequent snuffing of candles, is a circumstance of material importance, as tending to diminish the hazard of fire, to which cotton mills are known to be exposed.

Although this installation in the mill of Phillips and Lee is the first one described by Murdock, in reality it is not the first industrial gas-lighting installation.  During the development of gas apparatus at the Soho works and after his luminous display in 1802, he gradually extended gas-lighting to all the principal shops.  However, this in a sense was experimental work.  Others were applying their knowledge and ingenuity to the problem of making gas-lighting practicable, but Murdock has been aptly termed “the father of gas-lighting.”  Among the pioneers was Le Bon in France, Becher in Munich, and Winzler or Winsor, a German who was attracted to the possibilities of gas-lighting by an exhibition which Le Bon gave in Paris in 1802.  Winsor learned that Le Bon had been granted a patent in Paris in 1799 for making an illuminating gas from wood and tried to obtain the rights for Germany.  Being unsuccessful in this, he set about to learn the secrets of Le Bon’s process, which he did, perhaps largely owing to an accumulation of information directly from the inventor during the negotiations.  Winsor then turned to England as a fertile field for the exploitation of gas-lighting and after conducting experiments in London for some time he made plans to organize the National Heat and Light Co.

Winsor was primarily a promoter, with little or no technical knowledge; for in his claims and advertisements he disregarded facts with a facility possessed only by the ignorant.  He boasted of his inventions and discoveries in the most hyperbolical language, which was bound to provoke a controversy.  Nevertheless, he was clever and in 1803 he publicly exhibited his plan of lighting by means of coal-gas at the Lyceum Theatre in London.  He gave lectures accompanied by interesting and instructive experiments and in this manner attracted the public to his exhibition.  All this time he was promoting his company, but his promoting instinct caused his representations to be extravagant and deceptive, which exposed him to the ridicule and suspicion of learned men.  His attempt to obtain certain exclusive rights by Act of Parliament failed because of opposition of scientific men toward his claims and of the stand which Murdock justly made in self-protection.  These years of controversy yield entertaining literature for those who choose to read it, but unfortunately space does not permit dwelling upon it.  The investigations by committees of Parliament also afford amusing side-lights.  Throughout all this Murdock appeared modest and conservative and had the support of reputable scientific men, but Winsor maintained extravagant claims.