Philippe Lebon was a French engineer and chemist who invented an early lamp powered by an illuminating gas. By heating sawdust in a glass tube over a flame, Lebon produced the flammable gas that he used in his Thermolampe (heat lamp), which he patented and exhibited in 1799. For several months in 1801 he exhibited a large version of the lamp in a Paris hotel. 

While at university, Lebon became interested in distillation as an industrial process for the manufacturing of materials such as tar and oil. He graduated from the engineering school in 1789, and was assigned to Angouleme, France. There, he investigated distillation further, and became more aware that the gas produced in the distillation of wood and coal could also be a useful byproduct for lighting, heating, and even as an energy source in engines. He took out a patent for distillation processes in 1794, and continued his research, eventually designing a distillation oven that came to be known as the thermolamp. He applied for and received a patent for this invention in 1799, with an addition in 1801. He launched a marketing campaign in Paris in 1801 by printing a pamphlet and renting a room where he put on public demonstrations with his apparatus. His goal was to raise sufficient funds from investors to launch a company, but he failed to attract this sort of interest, either from the French state or from private sources. He was forced to abandon the project and return to the civil engineering corps. Although he was given a forest concession by the French government to experiment with the manufacture of tar from wood for naval use, he never succeed with the thermolamp, and died from uncertain circumstances. 

Although the themolamp received some interest in France, it was in Germany that the interest was the greatest. A number of books and articles were written on the subject in the period 1802-1812. There were also thermolamps designed and built in Germany, the most important of which were by Zachaus Winzler, a Moravian chemist who ran a salpetre factory in Blansko. Under the patronage of the aristocratic zu Salm family, he built a large one in Bruno. He later moved to Vienna to further his work there. The thermolamp, however, was used primarily for making charcoal and not for the production of gases.

William Murdoch, working independently in Scotland at the same time, produced, purified, and stored gas more successfully through the destructive distillation of coal instead of wood , introducing gas lighting. Murdock did not see Lebon's Paris demonstration but Gregory Watt, second son of James Watt, did see it. Watt's report caused the Boulton-Watt engineering firm to back Murdock's experiments and commercial gas plants for large mills were sold from 1804 onwards by the firm. Frederic Winsor, an eccentric German, also saw Lebon's demonstration in Paris. Winsor began independent demonstrations of gas lighting in London in 1804; his approach was the supply of gas by mains from central generating plants rather than the independent house or mill generating systems sold by Boulton and Watt. The Gas Light and Coke Company was chartered in 1812 and gas piping began to spread through London.

Sources

• Cleveland, Cutler (Lead Author); Peter Saundry (Topic Editor). 2008. "Lebon, Philippe." In: Encyclopedia of Earth. Eds. Cutler J. Cleveland (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). [First published in the Encyclopedia of Earth September 15, 2006; Last revised June 19, 2008; Retrieved March 16, 2009]. 
• Plambeck, James A. “The Fuel Industry: Wood, Coal, and Domestic Gas.” Intute: Science, Engineering and Technology. Last updated: 15 July 1996. Accessed 16 March 2009.
• Wikipedia Contributors, Philippe le Bon, Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia, Accessed 16 March 2009.
• Wikipedia Contributors, History of manufactured gas, Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia, Accessed 16 March 2009.