SAFETY-LAMPS. 205 



the lamp ; and I caution you to guard against it in the man- 

 ner I have shown you. This is the only case in which the 

 lamp will explode ; and I caution and warn you not to use it 

 in any such case.' 



These admonitions are strong enough. Had they been as 

 pointedly conveyed by Davy to the public, as they were to 

 Mr. Buddie and his miners, Davy would have protected his 

 memory from some injurious aspersions. On the whole, it 

 will be difficult, even for Davy's best advocates, to acquit him 

 of some trimming in respect of the weak point of his lamp 

 its capability of passing flame through the wire gauze 

 under the influence of currents of air. In his book on flame 

 he just adverts to the fact enough to save the mark ; whereas, 

 knowing the important issue at stake, it was incumbent on 

 him to have been no less emphatic in his book than in his 

 verbal communications to Mr. Buddie. 



It is a lamentable peculiarity of fire-damp explosions, 

 that in proportion as they are grave, so do they destroy 

 cautionary evidence for the future. We need not marvel, 

 therefore, that the difference of opinion, as to the practical 

 amount of safety capable of being afforded by the safety- 

 lamp, is still so considerable. Evidence enough is, I regret 

 to say, forthcoming to show that there are conditions of air- 

 currents totally beyond the ability of a miner, however care- 

 ful, to foresee ; which cannot be guarded against by shade or 

 screen; and which may determine, as they have before, an 

 explosion. Take the following as an example : Greenock pit, 

 after remaining unworked for some time, filled with explosive 

 gas. An agent and two men descended with a safety; but 

 ventilation being imperfect, the agent returned to the surface, 

 and by way of producing a current of air threw some water 

 into the shaft. A sudden gush of air resulted, which, driving 

 before it a body of fire-damp, urged the flame through the 

 wire gauze, and the inflammable atmosphere outside took 

 fire. One workman was killed on the spot ; the other escaped 



