The master told us that the invention was discovered very curiously.  A number of scientific gentlemen were dining together at Liverpool--a hundred years ago--when one of the company wagered that he would read a newspaper at the distance of two hundred feet by the light of a farthing candle.  The rest of the party said that he would not.  He perhaps had conceived the plan before.  Taking a wooden bowl, he lined it with putty, and into it embedded small pieces of looking-glass, by which means a perfect reflector was formed; he then placed his rushlight in front of it, and won his wager.  Among the company was Mr William Hutchinson, dock-master of Liverpool, who seizing the idea, made use of copper lamps, and formed reflectors much in the same way as the gentleman before mentioned.