author
Owen Merriman
Best known for a detailed 1884 book on gas lighting, this little-documented writer offers a window into the practical science and fast-moving technology of the late Victorian era. His surviving work is valued less as personal memoir than as a clear guide to how people understood burners, flames, and illumination at the time.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Very little biographical information about this author could be confirmed from reliable sources found here. Owen Merriman is chiefly traceable through Gas Burners Old and New, a work listed by Project Gutenberg and other library catalogs.
Published in 1884, Gas Burners Old and New is a historical and descriptive treatise on gas lighting, covering the development of burners and the theory of luminous combustion. The book was reprinted from the Journal of Gas Lighting, which suggests Merriman wrote with a practical, technical audience in mind rather than as a literary figure.
Because so little verified personal detail is readily available, Merriman is best approached through his subject matter: the world of nineteenth-century lighting technology, when gas illumination was still central to everyday life and industry. Readers interested in industrial history, engineering, or the changing texture of urban life will likely find his work the most revealing introduction to him.