Frederick Albert Winsor

Frederick Albert Winsor, born Friedrich Albrecht Winzer, was a German entrepreneur, born 1763 in Braunschweig in the Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel and died May 11, 1830 in Paris, who founded gas lighting as a public utility. After investigating Philippe Lebon's thermo-lamp in Paris in 1802, he established a gasworks in Britain and in 1807 lit one side of Pall Mall in London with gas lamps supplied from coal gas made in a retort, the world's first public demonstration of street gas lighting. He held several patents for gas furnaces between 1804 and 1809 and worked to establish the Gas Light and Coke Company in Britain, the first company formed to supply gas lighting commercially, before moving to France, where his own gas company was liquidated in 1819. He was buried at Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, and a green plaque on Pall Mall today commemorates his 1807 demonstration.