William Murdoch was one of this country's great inventors. He was born at Lugar, Ayrshire on 21st August 1754 and learned much from his father who was a very capable millwright. At the age of 22, William left his home town to seek work with the firm of Boulton and Watt in Birmingham. William's ingenuity and ability was recognised by James Watt and at the age of 25, he was appointed Senior Engine Erector in the company's most important and competitive area, Cornwall.
William moved into a fine town house, now called Murdoch House, near the centre of Redruth about 1780 and established a foundry and workshop at these premises. His days were spent undertaking his employers' business, erecting and maintaining the Watt steam engines employed in the Cornish copper and tin mines. Some years earlier, James Watt had taken out a patent describing a steam-driven carriage but had not produced any detailed designs. William filled his spare time experimenting and, within a year or two, was actively engaged in his spare time designing and building a working model of a road vehicle powered by steam. The steam carriage was a three- wheeled vehicle and the small boiler was heated by a spirit lamp. In 1784 he demonstrated the vehicle, its steam boiler and piston driving it through a beam and a crank on the rear wheels. His original model has been preserved in the Birmingham museum and an early copy is in the Science Museum, London.
William built several models of his steam carriage. Neither James Watt nor Matthew Boulton would show any genuine support for William's developments, perhaps fearing that any encouragement would take him away from their main business of the steam engines in the mines. Had Murdoch not been so discouraged by his employers he might have made significantly more rapid progress in the development of the steam carriage. Instead, he turned his mind to other ideas and around 1792, he illuminated his home in Redruth with the world`s first practical gas lighting. He was awarded the Rumford Gold Medal by the Royal Society.
However, interest in steam carriages elsewhere spurred William on and it is recorded that around 1794, he built a large steam carriage at the Tuckingmill Brass Foundry, near Redruth, which was owned by his friend John Budge, and that he lit it with gas of his own manufacture. He is reputed to have ridden from mine to mine on his steam carriage, although the poor state of the few roads in the area at that time is likely to have hampered success. No information on its final design or performance appears to have survived. It seems unlikely the vehicle ever underwent full trials and it was left to others, notably his near neighbour Richard Trevithick of Camborne, to further develop and gain recognition for constructing the first successful steam driven passenger carrying road vehicle in 1801 and steam driven railway locomotive in 1804.
William Murdoch gave to the world numerous inventions and innovations, many ahead of their time and many of which are still in use today. He merits much wider recognition for this than he has received.
