William Murdoch, Scottish engineer and inventor, created gas lighting (died 1839)

William Murdoch was a Scottish chemist, inventor, and mechanical engineer.

Gas lighting is the production of artificial light from combustion of a fuel gas such as methane, propane, butane, acetylene, ethylene, hydrogen, carbon monoxide, or coal gas. The light is produced either directly by the flame, generally by using special mixes of illuminating gas to increase brightness, or indirectly with other components such as the gas mantle or the limelight, with the gas primarily functioning to heat the mantle or the lime to incandescence.