I8l6.] Dr. Clanmfs Practical Observations on Siufdy Lamps. 321 



If jou will liave tlie goodness, Mr. 

 Editor, to devote a niche in your instruc- 

 tive misecUiuiy for the above qiiotatioiis, 

 jjcrJiiips some of your intelligent corres- 

 pondents, ivLo may Lave access to tiic 

 rest of Lee's plays, will furnish sonio 

 more passages which are coincident to 

 some pai t of Blair's Grave. 



Haverhill; John Webb. 



Oct. 5, 1816. 



♦lf>ring this advantage, it must be ou- 

 tknt that a great saving in labour may 

 be made in (he repairs by a judicious 

 selection of sncli as are not seized on 

 by tli(« fimgi, as these may, without re- 

 inoval, readily be ox\ dated by the di- 

 luted acid. The uither evolved from 

 which too, may [noducc the best eU'ecls, 

 as it prevents germination; and, as there 

 is always some disengaged in its sepa- 

 ration and fixation in the wood, it is 

 calculated that this disengaged aether 

 may produce the best efiects in repairs 

 lor dry-rot. j r,,j,dall. 



J'ltzrotf-square ; 

 Oct. 9, 1816. 



To the Editor of the Monthhj Magazine. 

 SIR, 



>IPPING lately into two of Nat. 



Lee's plays, viz. "Thcodosius" 

 and "Alexander the Gi eat," I perceived 

 a coincidence of thought and expression 

 which I recollected to have met with in 

 that popular poem, "Blair's Grave." 

 Joeing induced to examine the latter, I 

 was led to a conclusion, tiiat Blair had 

 been guilty of plagiarism, in converting 

 to his own use some ideas, I might say 

 almost whole lines, wiitten by the mad 

 tragic poet. 

 I will furnish a few proofs — ■ 



" By glimpse of moonshine cheq'ring thro' 

 the trees." Blair's Grave. 



For the Monthly Magazine. 



PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS On SAFETV 

 LAMPS/or COAL MINES. B}J WILLIAM 

 REID CLANNY, M. D. 



AT tiie request of my friends, and 

 from a desire to comply with the 

 wishes of those persons who have been 

 using for some time the original safety 

 lamps, the steam safety lamps, ami the 

 ffas light lamps, I am" induced to pub^ 

 lish these concise directions: and. if I 

 sliall have occasion to advert to some 

 otiier parlicidars connected with the 

 suijject, I trust the reader will find an 

 excuse for me, when I inform him, that 

 explosions in coal mines have occupied 

 my unremitted attention for the last eight 

 years. 



The original Safety Lamp. 

 These lamps have been known to the 

 scientific world, and to those concerned 

 in coal mines in this district, for several 

 years. The first printed account of 

 them appeared in the Philosophical 



"Where scarce the twilight of an infant Transactions of the Royal Society for 



1813; since which time all the respec 



moon 

 By a faint glimmer, cheq'ring thro' the 

 trees." 

 See Thcndosim, Act 5, Sceve 1. 



"A fit of common sickness pulls thee 



down." Blair. 



" A surfeit, nay, a fit of common sickness." 

 Lee's Alexander, Act 1, Scene 1. 



" In that dread moment liow the frantic 



soul 

 Kaves round the walls of her clay tenement, 

 Runs to each avenue, and shrieks for help." 



Blair. 

 -' Drives the distracted soul about her 



house, 

 Whichiiuisto all the pores, the doors of 



life, • 

 Till she is forc'd for air to leave her 



dwelling." 



Lee's Alexander, Act i, Seme 1. 

 "The common dnmu'd slum their society, 

 And look upon themselves as fiends less 



foul." Blair. 



" 'While friulrgt fiends shim thy society, 

 And thou Uialt walk alone forsaken fiuy." 

 Lee's Alexander, Act 5, Scene 1, 



Monthly TVUe. No. 2^0, 



table journals and periodical publica- 

 tions have given most satisfactory re- 

 ports of their value; partly diawn from 

 authenticated sources, and partly from 

 their actual practical utility in coal 

 mines, where fire-damp abounded. For 

 this lamj), in an improved state, I had 

 the honourto receive, Decembers, 1813 

 the unaniujous thanks of the Society for 

 l)reventing Accidents in Coal ]\lines. 



I had the pleasure, in October last, 

 accompanied by J. H. H. Holmes, esq. 

 and Mr. Patterson, of the Hcninn-toji 

 Mill Pit, to take the first liglu iuTo a 

 field of fire-damp at the exploding point, 

 which before that lime was considered 

 by most persons concerned in coal mines 

 as an impossibilify. Tjiis lamp has been 

 in constant use wherever great danger 

 w as apprehended from fiie damp sinew 

 the above period. In a word, the origi- 

 nality and priority of my idea of an ?n- 

 siilated lightforcoal mines, the construc- 

 tion of a safety lamp, and the establish- 

 ment of the safety atid utility of that 

 '^ t lamp 



