biography
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1754–1839)
|
| biography:
| Engineer, and pioneer of coal gas for lighting, born in Old Cumnock, East Ayrshire, SW Scotland, UK. He worked with Boulton and James Watt of Birmingham, and was sent to Cornwall to erect mining engines. At his home in Redruth he constructed the model of a high-pressure engine to run on wheels (1784), introduced labour-saving machinery, a new method of wheel rotation, an oscillating engine (1785), and a steam-gun. He also improved Watt's engine. His distillation of coal gas began at Redruth in 1792, when he illuminated his own home with it, but it was not until 1803 that Boulton's engineering works at Soho had gas lighting. |
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