At the age of 23, the Scottish – born Murdoch walked 300 miles to Birmingham to ask James Watt for a job.  He impressed Watt’s partner Matthew Boulton so much that he was hired immediately to work in the workshop designing the patterns for the casting of machine parts.  In September 1779, Murdoch was sent to Redruth with responsibility for the erection, maintenance & repair of Boulton & Watt engines used to pump water from the mines.

In addition to his mechanical work, Murdoch also experimented chemically, discovering a form of cement made from ammonium chloride and iron filings.  He also worked on copper compounds which were the foundation of the aniline dye industry as well as a replacement for isinglass (used to clear beer) from dried cod rather than Russian – imported sturgeon. 

Murdoch is, though, most famous for the replacement of smelly oil and tallow lamps with gas lighting (1792) which required him to devise an efficient method for the production and storage of coal gas.  This had other benefits since the process yielded coke, ammonia, phenol (carbolic acid) and one of the components of Bakelite^TM as well as coal tar, which was found to contain numerous organic compounds including one which was the basis of the first synthetic dye and another which was a precursor of an early form of aspirin.