1848.J 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



32<) 



GEORGE STEPHENSON. 



f Continued from page 300 J 



[Tbe above eograviiig is after a Purtrait by Mr. Briggs, R.A.]- 

 IT. THB SAFETY lAMP. 



Fire-damp is one of the greatest evils happening to coal-mines, 

 and one which is too well known to all having anything to do with 

 them. Thirty or forty years ago, this was so strongly felt that 

 many mines had reached their furthest workings, because the men 

 had no good means of going on, for the least flame was enough to 

 set the fire-damp burning, and the steel mill gave little light, and 

 was unsafe. 



In 1763, the Academy of Sciences were drawn to look into this 

 matter, several coal-mines at Briancon, in Dauphiny, having fired. 

 All that the Academy did was to recommend a better way of airing 

 the mines. ' 



Above a hundred years ago, Sir James Lowther had seen that 

 common fire-damp does not catch fire from sparks of flint and steel ; 

 and one of his overmen, said to be Mr. Spedding, made a mill for 

 giving light by striking flint and steel." This was worked by a 

 boy, and was used in the English collieries. It is, however, 

 known, that with the steel mill some mines have been set on fire. 



In Hainault, amadou, or fungus tinder, was sometimes used ; but 

 it gives so little light, that the men could not work by it, and all 

 that they could do was to find their way by it sometimes from one 

 side of the pit to another, where fire-damp was blowing. 



In 1796, Humboldt made a lamp ' for giving light in mines where 

 a common candle would not burn, or would set fire to the mine. 

 It was founded on the plan of keeping the light away from the 

 air, and could only burn a short time — that is, so long as the air 

 within it lasted. 



In 1813, Dr. Clanny made a lamp, to which he gave air from the 

 mine, through water, by bellows. This lamp went out of itself in 

 explosive mixtures. It was to be worked by hand or by ma- 

 chinery, but was too heavy to be moved about readily. 



From what Dr. Clanny had done, and from a fearful loss of life 

 in the Felling Colliery, whereby 101 men, women, and children 

 died, the minds of many were turned to some way of lessening 

 the fearful evil of fire-damp. At Sunderland a meeting was held, 

 wherein Mr. Buddie, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Cuthbert Ellison, M.P., 

 Bishop Gray, Dr. Clanny, and others, had a share, and who 

 called upon Sir Humphrey Davy to searcli into the whole matter.'' 



1 Histoire de rAcariemie Royale, 1763, p. 1, quoted by Davy. 



2 Hutchinson's History of Cumberland, quoted by Davy, 

 a Journal des Mines, viii. &?>9, quoted by Davy. 



« See Sir Humphrey Davy's several works in 1815. 1816, 1818, and 1325, but which 

 are nearly the same. The one here quoted is that of 1818, 



Sir Humphrey looked at Dr, Clanny's lamp, but he was told it 

 was too heavy and too costly to be useful. He tried phosphorus 

 and the electrical light ; but at length he found out that a lanip 

 could be made air-tight, and to which the air could be sent in 

 through \-ery small pi|ie3 or tubes, or from small openings in wire 

 gauze put below the flame, and having a chimney at top of the 

 same kind, for carrying ofl' the foul air. Tliis he afterwards 

 brought to bear in tlie sliape now so well known as the Davy Lamp, 

 or Davy, in nhich he was greatly heliied by Dr. Faraday. 



Meanwhile, others were no less busy : Mr. R. W. Brandling, Dr. 

 Murray, and Mr. John Murray made lamps, and so did George Ste- 

 phenson ; and at length there was very great strife between the 

 friends of Davy and Stephenson, as to who was the first. VV'e have 

 here a small book, written by George Stephenson, in his own behalf, 

 and which is the only work of his which is printed, other than re- 

 ports. Here it is well to say, th.it it would be worth while to print the 

 reports of George Stephenson, to bind with those of Smeaton, for 

 they are written in a very clear, thoughtful, and business way ; 

 and are of great worth for the history of engineering, as Stephenson 

 was called upcm to fight for the locomotive engine and the railway 

 in their childhood, against the world, having few to back him 

 or help him in his hard struggle. 



Stephenson's book is called " A Description of the Safety Lamp, 

 invented by George Stephenson, and now in use in Killingworth 

 Colliery ; to which is added, an account of the Lamp constructed by 

 Sir Humphrey Davy, with Engravings. London : Baldwin, Cra- 

 dock, and Joy; Archibald Constable and Co., Edinburgh; and E. 

 Charnley, Newcastle, 1817." It is only about sixteen sides, and 

 was printed by S. Hodgson, of Newcastle, and has four engravings. 



Another very interesting book is the " Report upon the Claims 

 of Mr. George Stephenson relative to the Invention of his Safety 

 Lamp. By the Committee appointed at a meeting holden in New- 

 castle on the 1st Nov., 1817, with an appendix containing the 

 evidence." This was printed at Newcastle, and has three plates, 

 which are the same as in Stephenson's book. 



Stephenson says : " Several of my friends having expressed a 

 wish that I would lay an engraved plan of my Safety Lamp before 

 the public, with as correct an account of the dates of the inven- 

 tion as I am able, I have resolved to do so. I was, at the same 

 time, advised to publish the steps by which I was led to this dis- 

 covery, and the theory I had formed in my own mind upon the 

 subject, which, with the facts from which I drew my conclusions, 

 were freely communicated to several persons during the time I was 

 engaged in the pursuit. AVith this 1 cannot persuade myself to 

 comply ; my habits, as a practical mechanic, make me afraid of 

 publishing theories ; and I am by no means satisfied tliat my own 

 reasons, or any of those I have seen published, why hydrogen gas 

 will not explode through small apertures, are the true ones. It is 

 sufficient, for our present purpose, that that fact has been disco- 

 vered, and that it has been successfully applied in the construc- 

 tion of a lamp that may be carried with perfect safety into the 

 most explosive atmosphere." 



" During the four years," Stephenson goes on to say, " that I 

 have been employed to superintend the engines at Killingworth 

 Colliery, one of the most extensive mines in Northumberland, 

 where there is a considerable quantity of machinery underground, 

 I have had frequent opportunities of employing my leisure hours in 

 making experiments upon hydrogen gas. The result of those ex- 

 periments has been the discovery of the fact above stated, and the 

 consequent formation of a Safety Lamp, which has been, and is 

 still used, in that concern, and which my friends consider (with 

 what justice the public must decide) as precisely the same in prin- 

 ciple with that subsequently presented to their notice by Sir Hum- 

 phrey Davy." 



The first thought of the safety lamp had been long in Ste- 

 phenson's mind; and in August, 1815,° he made a drawing of it, 

 which was shown to several people on the works^among others, to 

 Mr, Nicholas Wood," whose name is now, for the first time, seen 

 along with that of Stephenson. He was then a viewer at Kil- 

 lingworth, and seems to have taken a great share and delight in 

 all that Stephenson did, as is shown by the works of both, Ste- 

 phenson told Wood that he thought a lamp might be made which 

 would burn the fire-damp without blowing-up. The way was this, — 

 to make a tube in the bottom of the lanip,and he thought the attrac- 

 tion of the flame upwards would be greater than the force down- 

 wards. AA^ood drew out tbe plan under Stephenson's eye, and in 

 October, 1815, they went to Mr. Hogg, a tinman, at Newcastle, 

 and had a lamp made, which a fortnight after was put into Ste- 

 phenson's hands. When Stephenson first spoke about it, he asked 



s StephenBoa, p. 7, 



6 Report, p, 16, 



43 



