157), after referring to the successful lighting up by Murdock of the manufactory of Messrs.

Phillips and Lee at Manchester in 1805, "with coal gas issuing from nearly a thousand burners," proceeds, "This grand application of the new principle satisfied the public mind, not only of the practicability, but also of the economy of the application; and as a mark of the high opinion they entertained of his genius and perseverance, and in order to put the question of priority of the discovery beyond all doubt, the Council of the Royal Society in 1808 awarded to Mr.Murdock the Gold Medal founded by the late Count Rumford." [12] "Thus," says Mr.Charles Babbage, "in a future age, power may become the staple commodity of the Icelanders, and of the inhabitants of other volcanic districts; and possibly the very process by which they will procure this article of exchange for the luxuries of happier climates may, in some measure, tame the tremendous element which occasionally devastates their provinces."-- Economy of Manufactures..