CHAP. VII. STEPHENSON'S COURAGE IN TRYING IT. Ill 



through a blower in the roof of the mine with a loud 

 hissing noise. By erecting some deal boarding round 

 that part of the gallery into which the gas was escaping, 

 the air was thus made more foul for the purpose of the 

 experiment. After waiting about an hour, Moodie, 

 whose practical experience of fire-damp in pits was 

 greater than that of either Stephenson or Wood, was 

 requested to go into the place which had thus been made 

 foul ; and, having done so, he returned, and told them 

 that the smell of the air was such, that if a lighted 

 candle were now introduced, an explosion must in- 

 evitably take place. He cautioned Stephenson as to the 

 danger both to themselves and to the pit, if the gas took 

 fire. But Stephenson declared his confidence in the 

 safety of his lamp, and, having lit the wick, he boldly 

 proceeded with it towards the explosive air. The others, 

 more timid and doubtful, hung back when they came 

 within hearing of the blower ; and apprehensive of the 

 danger, they retired into a safe place, out of sight of the 

 lamp, which gradually disappeared with its bearer in 

 the recesses of the mine. It was a critical moment ; and 

 the danger was such as would have tried the stoutest 

 heart. Stephenson advancing alone, with his yet un- 

 tried lamp, in the depths of those underground workings, 

 calmly venturing his life in the determination to 

 discover a mode by which the lives of many might be 

 saved, and death disarmed in these fatal caverns, pre- 

 sented an example of intrepid nerve and manly courage, 

 more noble even than that which, in the excitement of 

 battle and the collective impetuosity of a charge, carries 

 a man up to the cannon's mouth. 



Advancing to the place of danger, and entering 

 within the fouled air, his lighted lamp in hand, Ste- 

 phenson held it firmly out, in the full current of the 

 blower, and within a few inches of its mouth ! Thus 

 exposed, the flame of the lamp at first increased, then 

 flickered, and then went out; but there was no explo- 



