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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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gas
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During the late 18C there were several successful attempts in Europe to derive gas from coal for lighting. Employees of *Boulton and Watt were the first to achieve a sustained practical application. William Murdock (1754–1839) lit his cottage by gas in 1792, and illuminated the firm's Soho factory in Birmingham to celebrate the Peace of *Amiens in 1802; his assistant Samuel Clegg (1781–1861) set up as an independent gas engineer in 1805. The first gas company was established in London in 1812.
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In 1814 *Westminster Bridge was lit by gas; by 1817 it was used both for the stage and front-of-house areas of *Drury Lane theatre; and as early as 1826 there was installed in Leeds the first 'gasometer' (the popular term for a gas-holder), expanding and contracting like a telescope. With mains laid throughout the larger cities, gas soon became the standard method of lighting for all who could afford it; and in 1841 Alexis Soyer introduced cooking by gas in London's Reform Club. Its other 20C application, for heating, was only developed after the more convenient *electricity had replaced it for domestic lighting.
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In 1948 *nationalization merged more than 1000 municipal and private gas companies into what eventually became the British Gas Corporation. Nearly 40 years later this was *privatized as British Gas. The industry received a boost in the early 1990s (and *coal a corresponding blow) when the electricity-generating companies favoured a rapid conversion to gas-fuelled power stations – in what became known as the 'dash for gas'.
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