William Murdoch
The final item of business is a members’ business debate on motion S4M-04226, in the name of Adam Ingram, on William Murdoch, the Scot who lit the world. The debate will be concluded without any question being put.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament welcomes the celebrations surrounding the 200th anniversary of the gas industry and, in particular, the opportunity to recognise the singular contribution made by William Murdoch, 1754-1839, who was born and grew up in the Ayrshire village of Lugar where his inventive engineering genius first became evident; notes that he was responsible for the production of the first steam carriage as well as what is considered his greatest innovation, which rapidly transformed society, gas lighting; further notes that the great scientist, Lord Kelvin, on unveiling a marble bust of Murdoch in the Hall of Heroes at the Wallace Monument in 1892, remarked on the benefit of his work not just to Scotland but to the whole world, and regards the gas@200 anniversary as an ideal time to highlight the life and work of William Murdoch whose gift of gas lighting was freely offered to the world.
17:02
This year marks the 200th anniversary of the gas industry in this country, and tonight the Parliament is holding a reception—hosted by my colleague Mark McDonald—to celebrate the major contribution that the industry has made and continues to make to Scotland and its economic wellbeing. I encourage fellow MSPs to participate in the event.
I am particularly grateful to have this opportunity to highlight the life and work of William Murdoch, the engineering genius who, among many other achievements, invented gas lighting, which places him in the pantheon of the great pioneers of the first industrial revolution.
Styled “The Scot Who Lit the World” in Janet Thomson’s excellent book on his life and work, Murdoch was very much a product of the Scottish enlightenment of the late 18th century and a leading member of that remarkable generation of Scots who invented the modern world.
William Murdoch was born into a family of millwrights at Bello mill in the Ayrshire village of Lugar. Many successful technicians, engineers and inventors of the industrial revolution came from similar skilled artisan backgrounds. William’s father, John, certainly set his son a considerable example in inventiveness and improvement at the mill. It is even reputed that father and son invented a tricycle that carried John to Cumnock on market days—60 years in advance of Kirkpatrick Macmillan’s bicycle invention down the road in Dumfries.
Of course, in addition to his father’s tutelage, William also benefited from a formal schooling at Cumnock parish school. Since 1696, every parish in Scotland had been required to maintain a free school and schoolmaster by act of the Scottish Parliament.
It was at Bello mill that the young William began experimenting with steam and made early attempts at gas lighting. He and his siblings excavated a small sandstone cave next to the mill on the banks of the Lugar water, which William used as a laboratory for his experiments. He placed burning coal into his mother’s old kettle, attached a perforated thimble to the end of the spout and set alight the gas that was released from the coal, illuminating the dark little cave. Incidentally, the light-giving property of the local caunle coal—or candle coal—was well known. A familiar sight in Ayrshire homes of the time was the earthenware container of burning caunle coal placed on top of the fire, giving light as well as warmth to the room.
Unlike many of his contemporaries, Murdoch does not receive the recognition that his achievements deserve. Certainly, I cannot recall any mention of him in the textbooks on the period. That is the case despite the admiration of his contemporaries, the award of a gold medal by the Royal Society and, indeed, the remarkable honour bestowed at the turn of the 19th century, some 50 years after his death, with the placing of his marble bust—one of only 16 people so honoured—in the hall of Scottish heroes at the Wallace monument in Stirling. I suspect that the main reason for his relative obscurity is that his work has been subsumed within that of the inventor of the steam engine, James Watt—of whom more later.
At the age of 23, William left his native Ayrshire village of Lugar and walked 250 miles, taking eight days, to begin work with James Watt and Matthew Boulton at the renowned Soho manufactory in Birmingham. Perhaps he had been inspired by an account of the works by another local Lugar man who had visited it the year before: James Boswell, the son of the local laird of the Auchinleck estate. Yes, it was the James Boswell of Boswell and Johnson fame.
In any case, William quickly became indispensable to the undertaking, becoming the practical go-to man who ensured that the engines worked and kept on working, which was no small feat in the days when mechanical engineering was in its infancy. Invention and innovation went hand in hand with that work, in order to improve the performance of the machinery. However, his terms of employment made it clear that his inventions were the intellectual property of his employers, so William’s groundbreaking work in, for example, converting steam power to produce rotary motion and the turning of wheels was patented by, and attributed to, James Watt.
As for gas lighting, for which he is now best known, Murdoch apparently perfected the process for producing and capturing coal gas while based in Cornwall, where Boulton and Watt’s engines were used in the tin mines. Murdoch’s house at Redruth was the first domestic residence to be lit by gas. When he returned to Birmingham, he continued experimenting, lighting the interior of the Soho buildings. The first industrial factory to be illuminated by gas was the Philips and Lee cotton mill in Manchester, which was fully lit by Murdoch with 904 gas lights in 1805.
Incredibly, Boulton and Watt denied Murdoch the opportunity to patent and develop gas lighting, which was not only much cheaper to run than the traditional oil or tallow lighting, but more brilliant, steadier and cleaner in use. The company therefore left the way open for competitors to exploit the market, which predictably boomed in the following decades, from the lighting of commercial properties to domestic and street lighting.
It is interesting that Murdoch contented himself with producing his paper for the Royal Society and its award of a gold medal in 1808 to him as
“the author of the most important or useful discovery which shall be made published ... in heat and light.”
Had Murdoch been motivated by fame and fortune, he could easily have achieved both, but his energies were directed towards his work in order to satisfy his intellectual curiosity and solve practical problems, benefiting others as much as, or even more than, himself. He led a productive and fruitful life, while providing a comfortable living for his family. In these days of puerile celebrity culture, he is a role model who deserves to be promoted to our young people.
17:10
I thank Adam Ingram for securing the debate, which gives us the opportunity to celebrate the life and works of William Murdoch. He was fittingly dubbed “The Scot Who Lit the World” by Janet Thomson in her book of that name, which I will certainly now read. I thank the member for bringing alive the life of William Murdoch so brightly for us today. It was quite inspiring.
As we all know, he was a brilliant figure whose work and innovations played a significant part in the industrial revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries. Of course, he hailed from Lugar in Ayrshire, and I am always happy to celebrate the achievements of one of South Scotland’s sons.
Among Murdoch’s achievements was the first working model of the steam carriage—or road locomotive, as I understand he preferred to call it—in 1784. Murdoch’s innovative idea was to design a three-wheeled vehicle about a foot in height, with, placed between the two larger back wheels, an engine and boiler that had a spirit lamp beneath it to heat the water, and a tiller at the front to turn the smaller front wheel. Murdoch was able to build on the cruder design of engineers such as Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot to design the more efficient model that I have just described. By building that model, he had the honour of creating the first man-made machine that was capable of moving around completely under its own power.
The harnessing of steam power cannot fairly be attributed to one inventor alone, but William Murdoch certainly played a major role in developing a technology that would power the whole industrial world. Indeed, his employer James Watt—another Scot—also played a part in the development of steam power, but is much more celebrated than this modest man was and is. He also built on Murdoch’s design by developing a reciprocating engine that was capable of powering a wheel.
As members will be aware, the steam carriage was not Murdoch’s most famous invention; he is better known for his 1792 invention of the gas light, as I found out yesterday, which replaced lighting that used oil and tallow. In that sense, he lit the world from his house in Redruth in Cornwall, which was the first in the world to be lit by gas. In my capacity as shadow minister for environment and climate change, I am not accustomed to celebrating the burning of gas, but I will forgive Mr Murdoch this time. After all, his method of lighting was far cleaner and more efficient than earlier methods and I am sure that he would, were he alive today, be at the forefront of sustainable energy design.
There is an air of, if not tragedy, then perhaps bad luck in Murdoch’s inventing career. It seems that he was not able to gain full recognition for his inventions through time. He failed to follow up his steam carriage invention, having been dissuaded from pursuing the project further by his employers, so he left further development of the device to other engineers. Patenting of inventions by employers is perhaps a lesson for the whole world and it seems ruthless to us today. He also failed to patent his gas lighting system, because he was advised that it would not make commercial sense. His idea was built on by Friedrich Winzer, who was a German inventor and the person who patented coal gas lighting, in 1804. That is unfortunate, but I am delighted to have heard that William Murdoch received a gold medal, and I am sure that he would have been happy to learn that he has been given some small recognition in the chamber today.
I hope that our highlighting the achievements that he brought to the industrial revolution will serve as an inspiration to today’s men and women inventors in South Scotland and far beyond.
17:05
I congratulate Adam Ingram on securing this members’ business debate, not simply because it allows us to recognise the fact that, through William Murdoch, Scotland gave the world gas lighting, but because it also offers us an opportunity to acknowledge the understated contribution that a range of Scots have made to the creation of the modern world.
If we ask most people to name Scots who have made an impact in creating the world as we know it, I suspect that they will come back with the names Alexander Graham Bell, Alexander Fleming and John Logie Baird, but many more have, like William Murdoch, left their mark on our everyday lives. I suspect that it will not surprise members to learn that I intend to be quite parochial in focusing on that subject.
The county of Angus may be considered by some to be a quiet backwater.
What do you mean “some”?
Thank you.
Over the centuries, Angus has punched far above its weight in producing sons and daughters who have gone out into the world and left lasting marks, without perhaps becoming household names. There are obvious examples for those of us who are interested in such matters. There is William Small, the 18th century scholar who was born in Carmyllie and whose influence on Thomas Jefferson was such that that US president described him as the father who inspired him to build the US declaration of independence on Scottish bedrock. That was, of course, a reference to the US declaration of independence being based on the declaration of Arbroath.
We can also point to Sir Robert Alexander Watson-Watt of Brechin, who developed and introduced radar, and, of course, to David Dunbar Buick, who was born in Arbroath in 1854. Buick emigrated to the USA and is credited with having developed a method of bonding enamel to iron for the production of baths and sinks after getting into the plumbing supply business. However, his greater claim to fame is the creation of the Buick manufacturing company to build internal combustion engines and cars. A statue in Buick’s honour is to be unveiled in his adopted town—Flint, in Michigan—later this year, and moves that have been instigated by the Arbroath Guildry Incorporation are afoot in Angus to commemorate him there through the commissioning of a series of statues of famous sons of Arbroath.
It is intended that the statues will include William Small and one Thomas Moonlight. For members who have never heard of Thomas Moonlight, I say that he is reckoned to have been one of the USA’s greatest-ever soldiers before he went on to become governor of Wyoming. In that capacity, he pardoned the Sundance Kid, who went on to link up with Butch Cassidy. Perhaps we will gloss over that. I commend the Daily Mail to members, although members would not expect a Scottish National Party MSP to say that. In particular, I commend the edition of 27 October, which contained a well-researched tribute to those three men under the heading: “The Scottish town that shaped America”.
The contribution that Arbroath and the surrounding area has made to the world has not been confined to the contributions of those three giants. The area also produced James Bowman Lindsay of Carmyllie, who was the scientist who perfected the first constant electric light before Edison and Swan—who are, of course, credited with having invented the light bulb.
Mr Dey, will you be returning to Mr Murdoch at any time soon?
Yes. I am simply making the point that a real Scottish characteristic is that we have made such a contribution to the world.
As I said, we can consider the number of Scots who have done unsung things in much the way that William Murdoch did. Neil Arnott is credited with having invented the water bed among many other things, and Alexander Shanks was the inventor of the modern lawnmower. As we look across Angus, we cannot forget the likes of J M Barrie and Bon Scott, of AC/DC fame.
Angus is one wee part of Scotland that has given much and is giving much to the world, and it will continue to give much to the world in what I hope is a soon-to-be-independent nation.
17:19
I, too, congratulate Adam Ingram on securing the debate, as 2012 marks the 200th anniversary of the Scottish gas industry. The timing of the debate could not be more appropriate.
James Watt, Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Charles Babbage are names that are commonly associated with the industrial revolution, but today it is important to recognise the contributions of William Murdoch, who would have turned 258 this year, had he been still alive.
As I am sure all members are aware, the great Murdoch was born and bred in Ayrshire in almost the same time and place as Robert Burns and within sight of Boswell’s home at Auchinleck. Although much of his professional career was spent in Birmingham and Cornwall, his formative years were spent in Lugar, Cumnock and Auchinleck, where my ancestors came from—my mother always maintained that his family and ours were distantly related.
But back to Murdoch. He is known for his innovations to the steam engine and for creating a prototype steam locomotive in 1784. However, as has been said, he is probably better known for discovering the ability of gas to create light. He first lit his own house in Redruth in Cornwall in 1792, and six years later he used gas to light the main building of the Soho Foundry in Birmingham, where he worked with Matthew Boulton and James Watt. His skill was such that he also worked on one of the first British paddle-steamers to cross the English Channel—the Caledonia—and made a number of discoveries in chemistry. It is also reported that, through his father, Murdoch was involved in the construction of one of the bridges over the River Nith.
Boulton described Murdoch as
“the most active man and best engine erector I ever saw”
and while there is no questioning his ability, Murdoch is undoubtedly—as Adam Ingram said—one of the unsung heroes of the industrial revolution. His employers Boulton and Watt are credited with many of his inventions, but correspondence from Boulton in particular indicates the vital contribution that Murdoch made to many—if not all—the Boulton-Watt inventions. Despite his pioneering work with gas, Murdoch derived no significant financial benefit from his invention due to his failure to obtain a patent in his own name.
As is often the case with engineers, Murdoch frequently experimented with technology, and that led him also to devise the first pneumatic message system, which was later developed by the London Pneumatic Dispatch Company and was reportedly adopted by Harrod’s. In my childhood, the same system was still in use in Glasgow and Edinburgh shops.
However, it is fair to say that the steam engine was Murdoch’s first love, with most of his best work being associated with it. In 1817, after James Watt junior bought the Caledonia, Murdoch began on work to make her seaworthy by building and installing new engines and boilers. His engineering genius extended to marine engineering and his work was so successful that Boulton and Watt even received an order from their competitors for a new steamboat engine. Orders soon followed from commercial customers and the Royal Navy. It is estimated that, from 1813 until 1825, more than 3,000 horsepower of marine engines were made by Boulton and Watt, which powered between 40 and 60 vessels. That was all achieved by a young Ayrshire man with his brilliant mind.
Today, in noting Murdoch’s contribution to the industrial revolution and the Scottish enlightenment, the Scottish Parliament gives Murdoch a little more credit for his pioneering work, which he so richly deserves. Well done, Adam Ingram, for drawing Murdoch’s contribution to our attention today.
17:23
I congratulate Adam Ingram on bringing the debate to Parliament.
We have already heard how brilliant William Murdoch was. As we have heard, he invented the steam tricycle, the steam cannon and waterproof paint. He was a man of myriad skills and talents. He invented the oscillating cylinder steam engine, the steam gun and the pneumatic tube message system, and he worked on one of the first steam passenger vessels to cross the English Channel. He also made many discoveries in chemistry.
While working at Redruth in Cornwall, Murdoch dealt with many mechanical problems relating to the steam engine, which is why he was able to come up with so many practical improvements to the basic steam engine designs. There is evidence that, as early as 1782, Murdoch discussed and collaborated with James Watt on a number of inventions and improvements. However, one of his most significant inventions was the sun-and-planet gear, which allowed steam power to be used
“to produce a continued rotative or circular motion round an axis or centre, and thereby to give motion to the wheels of mills or other machines.”
Murdoch was also the first person to demonstrate a steam carriage, which he did in Rivers’s great room at the King’s Head hotel, Truro—the first public demonstration in Britain of such steam locomotion.
Murdoch also experimented with chemistry. In 1784, he discovered iron cement, which was made from sal ammoniac—or ammonium chloride—and iron filings. In 1795, Murdoch developed a replacement for isinglass, a precipitate that was made from sturgeon that was used to clarify beer to remove impurities. There was very little limit to the man’s incredible genius.
The North River Steamboat, the first steamboat to run on the Hudson River, was to a large extent designed by Murdoch, who built the engine and agreed the technical details. In 1815, he designed and installed the first gravity-fed piped hot-water system since classical times at Leamington Spa baths. At the celebration of the centenary of gas lighting in 1892, a bust of Murdoch was unveiled by Lord Kelvin—who, of course, had a house in Largs, in my constituency—in the Wallace monument in Stirling. There is also a bust of Murdoch by Sir Francis Legatt Chantrey at St Mary’s church.
The town of Redruth celebrates Murdoch day every year in June. The 2007 event included a parade of schoolchildren with banners on the theme of earth, wind, fire and water and the first public journey of a full-size working reproduction of Murdoch’s steam carriage.
Truly, Murdoch was an incredible Scot. We have heard about many other great Scots. I recommend the book “How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe’s Poorest Nation Created Our World & Everything in It”—or “The Scottish Enlightenment: the Scots’ Invention of the Modern World”—by Dr Arthur Herman, who is the co-ordinator of the western civilization programme at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC.
I will mention some other great Scots from the wonderful county of Ayrshire. There is of course Henry Faulds from Beith in my constituency—the Scottish physician, missionary and scientist who developed fingerprinting. There is John Boyd Orr, who was the first person to make the link between poverty and nutrition. We also have Thomas Brisbane, the Largs astronomer, and Alexander Fleming, the biologist and pharmacologist. John Kerr from Ardrossan in my constituency discovered the quadratic electro-optic effect, which is a change in the refractive index of a material in response to an electric field—now known as the Kerr effect, as I am sure members will know. There have been many other great Scots, such as William Dunlop Brackenridge, Robert Simson, John Loudon McAdam and John Morton Boyd CBE.
It is important that Scots are encouraged to learn about the famous Scots from their small towns and communities. I mentioned Dr Henry Faulds from Beith in Ayrshire. The Rev Witherspoon, who wrote the American declaration of independence and founded Princeton University, was the minister in Beith, yet many people in the town probably do not realise that. We should give people some pride in their towns and counties by telling them about what Scotland has contributed in the past. That would be an inspiration to our young people and would allow many more of them to become the best that they can be. Perhaps in future years and generations, we will produce people of the genius of William Murdoch.
17:28
I, too, congratulate my colleague Adam Ingram on securing the debate and on his extremely informative speech, from which I certainly learned many things that I did not already know regarding William Murdoch. As my colleague highlighted, there is a reception in the garden lobby following the debate to tie in with the gas@200 celebrations, and all members are more than welcome to attend.
It was pointed out that Murdoch failed to profit from his invention because he did not patent it, but it is also worth noting that Boulton and Watt also failed to recognise the potential of the domestic market and the major contribution that Murdoch’s invention had made and that they abandoned the gas market in 1814. Given the many inventions that they patented, that was perhaps a major error on their part.
Kenneth Gibson talked about Murdoch’s discovery in 1795 of an alternative to isinglass, which is a substance used in the brewing industry to remove impurities. It is actually obtained, rather tastefully, from the swim bladder of fish. In 1795, when Murdoch made his discovery, isinglass was exclusively produced from sturgeon—specifically, beluga sturgeon—which was extremely expensive to import and cost the brewing industry a great deal. Murdoch discovered that it was possible to substitute dried cod for sturgeon, which made the brewing industry a significant saving. Indeed, it was considered such a significant discovery that the Committee of London Brewers paid him £2,000—which, at that time, was a fairly substantial sum—to use his invention and end their dependence on imports.
Members have gone through the list of the various inventions in which Mr Murdoch played a significant part, even if he did not develop them entirely himself. It strikes me as rather odd that, when I went through school, his was not one of the prominent names that were mentioned. I think of a recent episode of “QI”, in which Stephen Fry listed all the things that were invented by Scots. The list was extensive, but not necessarily exhaustive, because I am pretty sure that some of the inventions that we have spoken about this evening did not feature in it. Perhaps that highlights the need to make people more aware of individuals such as Murdoch and the significant contributions that they have made to the world.
I am a representative of the north-east of Scotland. The gas industry is a major employer there and an important part of the north-east and wider Scottish economy. In Peterhead, we have the St Fergus gas terminal, which is a massive facility and a significant employer. I am sure that the debate is fascinating for those who are interested in seeing how different Scots contributed to the modern world, but we should not forget that many people also now owe their employment and livelihoods to the discoveries that were made by people such as William Murdoch.
It is only right and proper that my colleague Adam Ingram secured the debate to highlight Mr Murdoch’s fantastic achievements. Let us hope that, as we move forward, those achievements are recognised more fully by Scots throughout our nation.
17:32
I thank Adam Ingram for bringing this most interesting topic before the parliamentary chamber and commencing the debate with such a vivid picture of the achievements and life of William Murdoch. I also thank all members who participated in the debate for adding to that picture.
As we heard, William Murdoch was born in the Ayrshire village of Lugar. I understand that he is still greatly celebrated in the town of Redruth in Cornwall, which holds an annual Murdoch day in June. He was an extraordinary man of remarkable insight and wide-ranging achievements. We owe a debt—not for the first time—to Kenneth Gibson in particular for pointing out how wide-ranging those achievements were. Mr Murdoch’s achievements included the steam engine and beer clarifying—a quite extraordinary width of achievement—but he is perhaps most widely recognised for his work producing coal gas and inventing the first domestic gas lighting system.
In 1792, Mr Murdoch first began experimenting with coal to produce gas and, through his hard work, innovation and genius, discovered the best method for quality gas production. He designed the system for transporting, storing and purifying gas and using it for lighting. That invention truly transformed the world. It led the way for the gas industry’s massive contribution to civilisation. Where would we be without it? We would not have the heat and light that we take for granted.
The motion welcomes the celebrations surrounding the 200th anniversary of the gas industry. Mark McDonald alluded to the fact that he is hosting an event this evening at which we can come together and mark the successes of that bicentenary.
I hope that it is relevant—primarily because of the first sentence of the motion—for me to talk a little about the gas industry. The oil and gas industry supports around 440,000 jobs in the United Kingdom and 200,000 jobs in Scotland, and has generated almost £300,000 million in tax revenue at today’s prices.
I recently had the opportunity to visit the St Fergus gas terminal. I took a tour of the site and visited the control room that monitors and controls the flow of gas from three companies—Total, Shell and Apache—into the national transmission system, which is the motorway pipeline that transports natural gas around the country.
I hope that it is also relevant to point out that the oil and gas strategy that the First Minister launched in May sets out a clear support plan of which William Murdoch would, I hope, have approved. The plan recognises that we want to maximise recovery of oil and gas reserves so that they are not wasted by lying unexploited in the sea bed. We want to raise the rate of exploitation from 40 per cent, as 60 per cent is currently wasted. It is surely not green to waste any product, whether it is water, food or fuel, and it is green to maximise the recovery of our oil and gas reserves. I will throw an interesting statistic into the debate, which William Murdoch paved the way for us to achieve: for every 1 per cent of extra oil and gas that we can recover, the tax take is £22,000 million.
The ingenuity that William Murdoch displayed is shown by many other Scots in expanding the scope of our gas industry. For example, I had the pleasure of meeting a gentleman from Shetland called Ian McKinnon when I visited Houston in April this year. He is now at the forefront of a company that started from an incubator unit in Houston that Scottish Development International set up, and he is en route to turning over millions of dollars in the shale gas industry. He was able to increase the efficacy and value of shale gas that is recovered by managing the waste solutions, which shows that Scottish engineers are continuing the tradition of ingenuity.
We are on the verge—we hope—of seeing in Scotland the beginning of a carbon capture and storage industry that will allow us to extract the carbon emissions from coal and gas power production and enable us to achieve European Union emissions targets. CCS plans can potentially be applied to the Peterhead project, which is a joint venture between Scottish and Southern Energy and Shell. A 340 MW post-combustion capture is to be retrofitted to the existing 1180 MW combined cycle gas turbine power station at Peterhead, subject of course to a planning application that will be considered in due course.
There, again, the gas industry is set—we hope—to play a leading role in this country. Without William Murdoch’s invention, we would not perhaps be where we are now.
Gas continues to play a massive part in our economy. The industry in Scotland is hugely successful. The National Grid plays an important role in keeping the lights on, in relation to security of supply in the United Kingdom. I am glad that representatives from the National Grid will attend this evening’s event, including Mike Calviou, the director of transmission, and Duncan Birt, whom I met earlier today.
It is right to mark the achievements of the gas industry in Scotland as well as the extraordinarily inventive mind and works of William Murdoch. We have also had interesting little diversions into the notable success of Angus and Ayrshire—in fact, there seems to be some sort of unofficial competition going on about which of those two esteemed counties produced more inventors. I am sure that Mr Dey and Mr Gibson will carry on that competition at some later date.
I conclude by paying tribute to William Murdoch. Mr Ingram mentioned that Mr Murdoch was not a man who bothered to seek for himself credit for the many inventions that he gave the world. Ronald Reagan once said that it is amazing what you can achieve in life if you do not mind who gets the credit. Perhaps that comment can be applied to William Murdoch—a great Scot, and the Scot who lit the world.
Meeting closed at 17:40.