Alas poor Mr Winsor, a plea for restoration

Within the famous Parisian Burial Ground, Cimetière du Père Lachaise lie many famous people who contributed much to French society. There is however a relatively unique person buried within that grave yard who made a significant impact on the whole world.

His name Friedrich Albrecht Winzer from Braunschweig in Germany. He was a visionary and impresario who had seen Philip Lebon’s early experiments using the Thermolamp in Paris (Lebon unfortunately died poor and benefited little from his discovery). He had a vision of a large and successful integrated gas industry and to succeed he decided to come to Britain, where he anglicized his name to Fredrick Albert Winsor.

Winsor proposed the concept of centralized gasworks providing gas to multiple establishments through gas mains under the streets. Winsor thought London a suitable place to develop a gas industry. He gained a reputation in the field, undertaking evening lectures and demonstrations at the Lyceum Theater in London, going on to demonstrate gas lighting on Pall Mall in 1807.

At the same time William Murdoch had been developing gas lighting at the Boulton and Watt Company, (another story for another day), however, Murdoch had only wanted to build gasworks for a single factory. Winsor had a very commercial outlook, much more so than Murdoch, and had unsuccessfully challenged Murdoch for a patent for lighting by coal gas. Winsor was intent on setting up a company to produce gas from a centralized gasworks. He first proposed the National Light and Heat Company in 1807 with the grand aim of supplying the whole country with gas.

Making applications to Parliament for a charter, he found strong opposition from Murdoch and his friends. He persisted and, eventually, on 30 April 1812, the Gas Light and Coke Company (GL&C Co) received its Royal Charter. Its first gasworks was built on Cannon Row, Westminster, but the plant failed technically and the site was too small to meet future needs. What could be salvaged from Cannon Row was removed to a new site at Great Peter Street, Westminster, which was eventually a success.

Winsor’s success with the GL&C Co was short-lived. He was ousted by the ruling court and in 1813 was given an annuity of ￡600. This was suspended in 1815 and Winsor had to flee the country to avoid his creditors. He returned to France and established the first gas company in Paris, unfortunately this was short-lived. He died in 1830 a disappointed man, but his influence on the gas industry was significant. Mr Winsor is the father of the distributed gas industry and with that all distributed utilities such as electricity and water.

The Winsor Memorial is now in a bad condition and a local group are looking to have the monument restored before it becomes too badly damaged. Whilst the marble base and column are in reasonable condition the symbolic urn with its flame at the top of the memorial are is a poor condition.