~Gas Fittings.~--Curious notions appear to have been at first
entertained as to the explosive powers of the new illuminator, nothing
less than copper or brass being considered strong enough for the
commonest piping, and it was thought a great innovation when a local
manufacturer, in 1812, took out a patent for lead pipes copper-coated.
Even Murdoch himself seems to have been in dread of the burning element,
for when, in after years, his house at Sycamore Hill changed owners, it
was found that the smaller gas pipes therein were made of silver,
possibly used to withstand the supposed corrosive effects of the gas.
The copper-covered lead pipes were patented in 1819 by Mr. W. Phipson,
of the Dog Pool Mills, the present compo being comparatively a modern
introduction. Messengers, of Broad Street, and Cook, of Caroline Street
(1810-20), were the first manufacturers of gas fittings in this town,
and they appear to have had nearly a monopoly of the trade, as there
were but three others in it in 1833, and only about twenty in 1863; now
their name is legion, gas being used for an infinitude of purposes, not
the least of which is by the gas cooking stove, the idea of which was so
novel at first that the Secretary of the Gas Office in the Minories at
one time introduced it to the notice of the public by having his dinner
daily cooked in a stove placed in one of the office windows.
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