CHAP. VII. THE STEPHENSON TESTIMONIAL. 125 



in which they declared that, " after a careful inquiry 

 into the merits of the case, conducted, as they trust, in 

 a spirit of fairness and moderation, they can perceive no 

 satisfactory reason for changing their opinion." 



The Stephenson subscription, when collected, amounted 

 to 1000/. Part of the money was devoted to the pur- 

 chase of a silver tankard, which was presented to the 

 inventor, together with the balance of the subscription, 

 at a public dinner given in the Assembly Rooms at 

 Newcastle. 1 But what gave Stephenson even greater 

 pleasure than the silver tankard and purse of sove- 

 reigns was the gift of a silver watch, purchased by 

 small subscriptions collected amongst the colliers them- 

 selves, and presented to him by them as a token of their 

 esteem and regard for him as a man, as well as of their 

 gratitude for the perseverance and skill with which he 

 had prosecuted his valuable and life-saving invention to 

 a successful issue. To the last day of his life he spoke 

 with pride of this gift as amongst the most valuable 

 which he had ever received. 



However great the merits of Mr. Stephenson in con- 

 nection with the invention of the tube safety-lamp, they 

 cannot be regarded as detracting from the reputation of 

 Sir Humphry Davy. His inquiries into the explosive 

 properties of carburetted hydrogen gas were quite ori- 

 ginal ; and his discovery of the fact that explosion will 

 not pass through tubes of a certain diameter was made 

 independently of all that Stephenson had done in veri- 

 fication of the same fact. It even appears that Mr. 

 Smithson Tennant and Dr. Wollaston had observed the 



1 The tankard bore the following first to apply that principle in the 



inscription : " This piece of plate, ' construction of a safety-lamp calcu- 



purchased with a part of the sum of j lated for the preservation of human 



1000L, a subscription raised for the j life in situations formerly of the 



remuneration of Mr. GEORGE STE- j greatest danger, was presented to him 



PHENSON for having discovered the j at a general meeting of the subscribers, 



fact that inflamed fire-damp will not I Charles John Brandling, Esq., in the 



pass through tubes and apertures of ! Chair. January 12th, 1818." 



small dimensions, and having been the , 



