Dr Thomas Beddoes and James Watt: Preparatory work 1794–96 for the Bristol Pneumatic Institute

In 1793, Dr Thomas Beddoes moved from Oxford, where he had won a considerable reputation as Chemical Reader, and established himself as a physician in Bristol. This was not an easy period for him, since he had a reputation for being an active sympathizer with the French Revolution and was known to the Home Office as the author of anti-government pamphlets sufficiently subversive to merit investigation. Not surprisingly, the University authorities, on the advice of the Home Office, had felt obliged to abandon a proposal that Beddoes should remain in Oxford while a University Chair of Chemistry was established.' Beddoes had been prepared to postpone plans ofhis own, but in the changed circumstances he returned to the purpose which had originally led him to decide to leave Oxford. This was to test in practice the possibility that gases might be found useful in the treatment of, in particular, pulmonary tuberculosis, and he arrived in Bristol with a clear plan in mind. He settled near to the Hotwells, where many sufferers from tuberculosis were gathered in the hope of a cure, and built up a practice that would support him, for he had undertaken not to derive any income from his work for the pneumatic project.