Fostering a new industry in the Industrial Revolution: Boulton & Watt and gaslight 1800–1812 LESLIE TOMORY* Abstract. Gaslight emerged as a new industry after 1800 in Britain, but not in other countries in Europe where the technology existed as well. Among the many groups trying, it was only the firm of Boulton & Watt that succeeded in commercializing the invention for two important reasons. The first was that they possessed skills and experience related to ironworking and to making scientific instruments, both of which they used as they developed gaslight apparatus. This development involved an extensive series of experiments that ultimately had its root in James Watt’s own work with pneumatic chemistry. The second reason was that they possessed many resources such as access to capital, their existing network of industrial customers, and their abilities to publicize their work. As with the steam engine, the firm proved adept at advertising. Boulton & Watt did not give their full attention to gaslight except in two spurts between 1805 and 1809, and by around 1812 they had lost almost all interest in the technology. By this time, however, they had solved many problems associated with scaling up gaslight apparatus for industrial use, they had trained many people who would go on to do further important work in the early years of the industry, and they had drawn extensive public attention to the new invention. Finally, their advertising involved elevating the status of William Murdoch as an inventor while minimizing the role of the firm. Gaslight developed fairly rapidly into a new industry in the first two decades of the nineteenth century in Britain, but not in France and Germany where the invention had also existed in some form in the period between 1790 and 1805. Like so many other technologies of the Industrial Revolution, Britain took the lead in creating a new industry. 1 Although the technological tradition which started on the Continent did not disappear completely, gaslight was almost exclusively a British industry to 1820, and from that point it was largely British engineers and equipment that drove its growth on the Continent. 2 Even in Britain there were many people and groups who tried to create a commercial form of gas lighting from the 1790s onwards, but among these * McGill University, 1380 Pine Avenue West, Montreal, QC, H3G1A8, Canada. Email: ltomory@gmail. com. I would like to thank Janis Langins, Trevor Levere, Bert Hall and Chris Hamlin for their comments on earlier versions of this paper. I would also like to thank Jon Agar and the referees, who have greatly improved this paper. 1 G. Nick Von Tunzelmann, Technology and Industrial Progress: The Foundations of Economic Growth, Aldershot: E. Elgar, 1995, p. 122. 2 Jean-Pierre Williot, Naissance d’un service public: Le gaz à Paris, Paris: Rive droite-Institut d’histoire de l’industrie, 1999, pp. 55, 62–63. Johannes Körting, Geschichte der deutschen Gasindustrie mit Vorgeschichte und bestimmenden Einflüssen des Auslandes, Essen: Vulkan-Verlag, 1963, pp. 103–110. H.J. Styhr Petersen, ‘Diffusion of coal gas technology in Denmark, 1850–1920’, Technological Forecasting and Social Change (1990) 38, pp. 37–48, 37. BJHS, Page 1 of 31. © British Society for the History of Science 2012 doi:10.1017/S0007087412000428