Davy Lamp
Lighting has always been a major problem for miners, and since the earliest days of mining for resources underground, people have tried to find safe ways to illuminate the darkness. Mines are dangerous, confined spaces, and open flames can cause serious problems. Fire is dangerous in itself, as it produces heat and fumes, and it can consume the oxygen in an enclosed space very quickly, all of which can kill in a very short space of time. Worse, a lamp with an open flame can ignite flammable gases, known as firedamp, that naturally collect in mines, causing explosions. In the western Industrial Revolution, mining explosions became a common and terrible problem as mines were driven deeper and deeper underground. The demand for coal, iron and tin caused a massive increase in industrial mining in the UK in the 18th and 19th Centuries, particularly across the south of Wales, Scotland and Lancashire.
The Competition for the First Safety Lamp
The increasing risk to miners triggered a veritable arms race between engineers looking for a safe alternative to the oil lamps used by miners. Two engineers led the charge to find a safer lamp design; these were George Stephenson, who would later go on to become known as the ‘Father of the Railways’ and Sir Humphry Davy, who was a respected chemist and inventor. The two worked independently but came up with very similar designs and these were presented to the scientific community in 1815. Sadly, Stephenson was not taken seriously as he had no academic pedigree, and it seems that his strong regional accent may have prejudiced the scientific community against his lamp design.
Fairly or not, the Davy Lamp was championed, and Humphry Davy was awarded the Rumford Medal by the Royal Society and given £2,000. The Davy lamp was a simply enough design that could be built and used easily by miners. The Davy lamp was a standard oil lamp, with a gauze chimney which protected the flame. The fine mesh allowed the passage of air to the flame but stopped the travel of the flame to firedamp in the surrounding atmosphere. The casing was made of brass or tinned steel so that if it was dropped or struck, it would not produce sparks.
The Added Benefits of the Davy Lamp
Not only did the Davy lamp prevent the ignition of firedamp, but it also proved to have an additional use too. The flame in the Davy lamp could be used to identify a harmful environment faster and more accurately than ever before. For example, the flame of a Davy lamp would burn blue in the presence of flammable gases or extinguish if there was not enough oxygen. The Davy lamp is so reliable that modern versions are still used by naval submarines to detect harmful gases faster than digital sensors can.
The Davy lamp, and the generations of safety lamps that followed from its success, have saved thousands of lives and are iconic of the country’s mining heritage. For more information on modern Davy lamp designs, get in touch with E Thomas and Williams Ltd.
