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Progressive Enlightenment: The Origins of the Gaslight Industry, 1780-1820. By Leslie Tomory. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2012. Pp. x+348. $28.
In Progressive Enlightenment, Leslie Tomory presents a highly detailed description of the European origins of gas lighting. The concise narrative places the background and development of early gas-lighting experiments and ventures deeply within the context of the Industrial Revolution, with a nod to the recent work of JoelMokyr that explores the influence of the Enlightenment on that era. Tomory then traces the process of designing the technology needed to establish stand-alone gas-light plants, followed by the development of urban gas-lighting networks. Currently a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at McGill University, Tomory based this well-researched book on his dissertation; he has also written other essays and articles on this subject (see, for example, "Building the First Gas Network, 1812-1820," Technology and Culture 52, no. 1 [2011]: 75-102).
The book is organized into three parts. In the first, Tomory explores early European experiments in pneumatic chemistry and industrial distillation. This section examines the work of Philippe Lebon in France and William Murdoch in Britain in particular and posits that Enlightenmentera public science contributed to the dissemination of knowledge of pneumatic chemistry that provided a foundation for gas lighting. Tomory also argues thatMurdoch's emphasis on using coal as a feedstock, as opposed to wood, proved decisive in Britain's early success in developing viable and sustainable gas-lighting systems. Part 2 is an in-depth...