Gaskell

Elizabeth Cleghorn, an English author; born in Chelsea, London, England, Sept. 29, 1810. She married in 1832 the Rev. William Gaskell, a Unitarian clergyman, Her novels chiefly of a social and economical order, are based on the lives of the industrial poor of Manchester. She died Nov. 12, 1865. ' Gas Light, in the most common meaning the light given by coal gas as employed in the lighting of buildings and streets. In 1792 W. Murdoch residing in Redruth in Cornwall made extensive experiments on the illuminating properties of gases obtained by distilling coal, wood, peat, and other combustible substances, which led him to the idea of collecting these gases in ve els, and expelling them through jets for light, and on this principle he lighted his own house and offices in Redruth. In 1798, having by this time returned to Birmingham, he erected a gas apparatus on a large seale at Soho Foundry. On the rejoicing for the peace of Amiens in 1802 the whole front of the Soho works was illuminated by Mr. Murdoch’s gas apparatus. In the same — M. Le Bon lighted his house in aris by gas obtained from wood and coal and made a proposal to supply the whole city. In 1805 a gas-lighting apparatus was erected in Manchester. The first i: company, the National Light and Heat Company, was established, and in 1809 Pall Mall was lighted. Gas was introduced in the United States first at Baltimore in 1821, in Boston in 1822, and in New York between 1823 and 1827. Gas is now largely used for cooking purposes; as an illuminant it is being superseded by electricity.