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The 1900s and Onward
Published in Sidney Dekker, Foundations of Safety Science, 2019
After the Felling Pit Disaster, the local parish priest, Reverend Hodgson, produced a pamphlet containing an account of the accident (Coal Mining History Resource Centre, 1999). This pamphlet was republished in the Proceedings of the Royal Philosophical Society, which in turn led a London barrister to publish a proposal for setting up a “Society for the Prevention of Accidents in Coal Mines.” This group came to be known as the Sunderland Society. It included among its members George Stephenson (later famous for The Rocket locomotive) and William Clanny, an inventor. The Sunderland Society aimed to establish prizes for the invention of safer schemes for ventilating and lighting mines. Their meetings and correspondence focused on demonstrations of mine safety technology—in particular, the society became a forum for debate about who should be credited with the invention of the safety lamp. The society’s efforts contributed to the widespread use of three different lamp designs: the Davy Lamp (invented by Sir Humphrey Davy), Clanny’s lamp, and Stephenson’s “Geordie Lamp.”
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Published in Neil McManus, Safety and Health in Confined Spaces, 2018
Neil McManus, Robert E. Henderson
Miners were among the first to become aware of the need for a device to detect hazardous gases (AIHA 1980). The atmosphere in mines can be subject to a variety of hazardous conditions. Toxic gases encountered in this environment include carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, and others. The atmosphere in mines can also become oxygen deficient. In some circumstances methane may be present in explosive concentrations. Since methane has no warning properties, a fully explosive concentration could accumulate before a worker would realize the potential risk. Any source of ignition, including the original miner’s lamp, could readily cause an explosion. The first combustible gas indicator, the Davy lamp, therefore, provided a significant step forward in mine safety. The visible characteristics of the flame of the Davy lamp informed the experienced user about more than just the presence of methane. Variations and refinements of the original Davy lamp design are still used today in some programs.
Atmospheric Testing
Published in John F. Rekus, Complete Confined Spaces Handbook, 2018
Perhaps the first significant advance in gas detection instrumentation came in 1855 with the invention of the miner’s safety lamp by Sir Humphry Davy. The Davy lamp not only provided miners with illumination, but it also served as a combination oxygen and explosive gas detector.
New Studies on Humphry Davy: Introduction
Published in Ambix, 2019
Frank A. J. L. James, Sharon Ruston
We are currently living through a number of bicentennial celebrations: 1819 was the year that John Keats (1795–1821) wrote his “Great Odes”; John Polidori (1795–1821) published The Vampyre; James Watt Sr. (1736–1819) died; the “Peterloo Massacre” took place, and Percy Shelley (1792–1822) wrote “England in 1819” and “The Mask of Anarchy” in response. We will also see celebrations this year for the sesquicentenary of the Periodic Table. Davy spent the entirety of 1819 in Italy where he had gone at the personal request of the Prince Regent (soon to be George IV, 1762–1830) to help unroll the papyri excavated from Herculaneum. By this point he had achieved much of what he was best known for: the nitrous oxide experiments; the isolation of potassium and other elements; and the invention of his miners’ safety lamp, the so-called “Davy lamp.”