120 CLAIMS OF DAVY AND STEPHENSON. CHAP. VII. 



to which Mr. Wood proceeded to give replies to the 

 best of his knowledge. But Stephenson, who up to 

 that time had stood behind Wood, screened from notice, 

 observing that the explanations given were not quite 

 correct, could no longer control his reserve, and, standing 

 forward, he proceeded in his strong Northumbrian 

 dialect, to describe the lamp, down to its minutest 

 details. He then produced several bladders full of 

 carburetted hydrogen, which he had collected from the 

 blowers in the Killing worth mine, and proved the 

 safety of his lamp by numerous experiments w^ith the 

 gas, repeated in various ways ; his earnest and impres- 

 sive manner exciting in the minds of his auditors 

 the liveliest interest both in the inventor and his 

 invention. 



Shortly after, Sir H. Davy's model lamp was re- 

 ceived and exhibited to the coal-miners at Newcastle, 

 on which occasion the observation was made by several 

 gentlemen, " Why, it is the same as Stephenson' s !" 



Notwithstanding Stephenson' s claim to be regarded 

 as the first inventor of the Tube Safety-lamp, his merits 

 do not seem to have been generally recognised. Sir 

 Humphry Davy carried off the eclat which attached to 

 the discovery. What chance had the unknown workman 

 of Killingworth with so distinguished a competitor ? 

 The one was as yet but a colliery engine-wright, scarce 

 raised above the manual-labour class, without chemical 

 knowledge or literary culture, pursuing his experiments 

 in obscurity, with a view only to usefulness ; the other 

 was the scientific prodigy of his day, the pet of the 

 Royal Society, the favourite of princes, the most brilliant 

 of lecturers, and the most popular of philosophers. 



No small indignation was expressed by the friends of 

 Sir Humphry Davy at this " presumption " on Stephen- 

 son's part. The scientific class united to ignore him 

 entirely in the matter. In 1831, Dr. Paris, in his ' Life 

 of Sir Humphry Davy,' thus spoke of Stephenson, in 



