[. 104 ] 



XXV. Answer to Mr. John Farey Seti. and to Dr. John 

 Murray. By J. Murray, Esq. 



To Mr. Tilloch. 



Sir, — . Jylv name being introduced by Mr. John Farey senior, 

 and Dr. John Murray, in your last number, I am peremptorily 

 called upon for an early reply. — That answer is no\v submitted. 



A contest regarding the priority of an invention may certainly 

 be carried on without asperity, for the object is merely to ascer- 

 tain a fact; and it is eqiiailv obvious that few would be found so 

 silly as to wish to have the merit of inventing a thing of no use, 

 Mr. Farey has nothing to do witli this contest : his is of a dif- 

 ferent kind. He aims at inducing the neglect, the disuse, and 

 the contempt of the invention of the safetv-lamp. Now if others 

 could with him believe it useless, and be brought to consider it 

 not merely as a matter of indifference, but as criminal, to defend 

 men from the danger of being destroyed by explosions of fire- 

 damp, they might then talk of it with nmch composure. But 

 others do not take the same view of it as Mr. Fai-ev, and he of 

 all men has the least right to complain if the charges wiiich 

 he brings against others should, sometimes, be met bv terms 

 which ought not to appear in the nicely-balanced language of 

 courtesy. I am unconscious of having offended Mr. Longmire. If 

 I have, I entreat his forgiveness. The good and generous mind 

 will impute it to an lionest warmth in favour of a discovery the 

 most important that has ever risen upon the horizon of existence: 

 and wlien I consider '* what it has done for thousands," I am 

 absorbed and lost in the contemi)Iation. I mav be called an 

 enthusiast: Indeed I am — 1 assume not the character of a man 

 of science : i)ut I trust Mr. Farcy senior will not deny me the 

 appellation of a philosopher. I shall be content to follow (tiiough 

 at an immeasurable distance between) onward in th;>.t path of 

 research which has been illuminated by the discoveries of Sir 

 H. Davy. 



The recommendation of an occasional use of the safe-lamp 

 is one which will not he followed ; nor can I conceive any thing 

 more absurd or ridiculous than to emplov the instrument 

 on a Monday, and ihen ha7ig il up the week through. The 

 fatal effects of such a procedure have been recently awfully ex- 

 emplified in the last colliery which I descended. I e'lheated 

 Mr. Roscoe to the continued u'^e of Sir H. Davy's safe-lamp — to 

 be uniform and universal. The neglect of the precaution has 

 accelerated that event which 1 hope will be a fence against any 

 impressions from the doctrines of Mr. Farey senior. Sir H. Davy's 



lamp 



