64 Safety -lamp Controversy. 



teen pages, detailing the evidence on which the Committee have 

 founded tiieir Report. 



Before proceeding to lay before our readers the observations 

 which we mean to submit to them on this Report, we shall, as 

 intimately connected with the subject, first insert the following 

 exposure. 



An Exposure of the Falsehood of an Opinio?!, given in the Form 

 of a Resolution nt a Meeting of certain Persons in Newcastle, 

 Nov. 1, l>17j Charles J. Brandling, Esq. in the Chair*. 

 Sir Humphry Davy's attention was first called to the subject 

 of the prevention of explosion from fire-damp bv the Rev. Dr. 

 Gray. Towards the end of August 1815, he visited the neigh- 

 bourhood of Newcastle, that he might become acquainted with 

 the causes and operations of fire-damp, and learn from the mi- 

 ners themselves what was wanting for their security; and he 

 stated to some of the gentlemen who offered him their assistance 

 on this occasion, his hopes, that a chemical examination of the 

 properties of fire-damp, miglit furnish to him some means 

 of procuring or guarding a light so as to prevent it from firing 

 the inflammable air. From August 1 815, till the beginning of 

 October, the subject occupied his attention as an object of spe- 

 culation. In the beginning of October he commenced his ex- 

 periments on fire-damp, and before the end of the third week f 

 in that month, discovered certain facts respecting that inflam- 

 mable substance, which enabled him to expose a light in safety 

 to an explosive atmosphere, and to make an apparatus, which 

 he immediately named a safe-lamp. These facts were, " that 

 the fire-damp was the least inflammable of explosive elastic 

 fluids, and that certain cooling influences of inexplosive elastic 

 fluids, as azote and carbonic acid, or of solid surfaces, as small 

 tubes, arrested its explosion." He made no secret of these facts; 

 they were immediately comnninicated to various scientific per- 

 sons, and letters respecting them were written to the President 

 of the Jloyal Society, the Lord Bishop of Durham, the Rev. Dr. 

 Gray, and the Rev. John Hodgson ; so that by the end of Oc- 

 tober or the beginning of November they were pretty generally 

 known. The application of these results was obvious; but mul- 

 tiplied and delicate experiments were required to determine all 

 the circumstances necessary for security, and to ascertain the 

 best methods of reducing them to practice; and Sir H. Davy 

 knew too well the dreadful consequences of a failure, to put any 

 rude and imperfect instruments into the hands of the collier. His 

 first lamps were made with small apertures below, and larger 



• From the Durham County Advertiser. 



f SirH. Davy can fix the 18th, from various evidence. 



