Safety lamp
Date
1817
Creator
Unknown, Engraver
Object type
Library reference
RCN29807
Material
Technique
Dimensions
height (print): 209mm
width (print): 130mm
width (print): 130mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Three figures showing a design for a safety lamp for illumination in coal mines. The lamp was intended to prevent a fire-damp explosion being triggered by a naked flame. Figure 1 shows the lamp without its cover. Figure 2 the perforated lamp cover, protecting the glass cylinder. Figure 3 a detail of the base of the lamp, showing three holes to admit air and a wire used to trim the wick.
Plate 2 from the monograph Report upon the claims of Mr. George Stephenson, relative to the invention of his safety lamp…by R.W. Brandling (Newcastle, for Emerson Charnley, etc., 1817).
Inscribed above: ‘PLATE 2’
The accompanying text contains testimony by Nicholas Wood, then of Killingworth Colliery: ‘A third lamp was made with perforations instead of tubes, but more numerous…At the Literary and Philosophical Society some one objected to the want of a trimmer, when Mr. Wood observed, that one might be inserted from the top or from the bottom. This statement he afterwards inserted in the Tyne Mercury.’
George Stephenson (1781-1848) British colliery and railway engineer, trialled his safety lamps at Killingworth Colliery, North Tyneside, England, in 1815. The lamp was the subject of a dispute over priority of invention with Sir Humphry Davy. Stephenson’s lamp featured perforated plates, rather than the gauze in Davy’s design.
Nicholas Wood (1795-1865) British civil and mining engineer assisted in George Stephenson’s lamp experiments and suggested design improvements. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1864.
Plate 2 from the monograph Report upon the claims of Mr. George Stephenson, relative to the invention of his safety lamp…by R.W. Brandling (Newcastle, for Emerson Charnley, etc., 1817).
Inscribed above: ‘PLATE 2’
The accompanying text contains testimony by Nicholas Wood, then of Killingworth Colliery: ‘A third lamp was made with perforations instead of tubes, but more numerous…At the Literary and Philosophical Society some one objected to the want of a trimmer, when Mr. Wood observed, that one might be inserted from the top or from the bottom. This statement he afterwards inserted in the Tyne Mercury.’
George Stephenson (1781-1848) British colliery and railway engineer, trialled his safety lamps at Killingworth Colliery, North Tyneside, England, in 1815. The lamp was the subject of a dispute over priority of invention with Sir Humphry Davy. Stephenson’s lamp featured perforated plates, rather than the gauze in Davy’s design.
Nicholas Wood (1795-1865) British civil and mining engineer assisted in George Stephenson’s lamp experiments and suggested design improvements. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1864.
Associated place