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Politics : Idea Of The Day
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To: IQBAL LATIF who wrote (48361)4/24/2005 7:45:56 PM
From: IQBAL LATIF  Read Replies (1) of 50167
 
Chirpy thoughts-Proposal to light English cities by gas (early 1800's)
The idea was ridiculed in the following popular rhyme:

"We thankful are that sun and moon
Were placed so very high
That no tempestuous hand might reach
To tear them from the sky.
Were it not so, we soon should find
That some reforming ass
Would straight propose to snuff them out,
And light the world with Gas."

Further ridicule came from William H. Wollaston, English chemist and natural philosopher, who said:

"[They] might as well try to light London with a slice from the moon."

Source: Murdock, Alexander. Light Without a Wick, a Century of Gas- Lighting, 1792-1892. Glasgow, Scotland, University Press, 1892. p. 45.
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