128 



THE "GEORDY" SAFETY-LAMP. 



CHAP. VII. 



Nicholas Wood, a good judge, has said of the two 

 inventions, " Priority has been claimed for each of them 

 I believe the inventions to be parallel. By different 

 roads they both arrived at the same result. Stephenson's 

 is the superior lamp. Davy's is safe Stephenson's is 

 safer." 



When the question of priority was under discussion 

 at Mr. Lough's studio, in 1857, Sir Matthew White 

 Eidley asked Eobert Stephenson, who was present, for 

 his opinion on the subject. His answer was, " I am not 

 exactly the person to give an unbiassed opinion ; but, 

 as you ask me frankly, I will as frankly say, that 

 if George Stephenson had never lived, Sir Humphry 

 Davy could and most probably would have invented 

 the safety-lamp ; but again, if Sir Humphry Davy had 

 never lived, George Stephenson certainly would have in- 

 vented the safety-lamp, as I believe he did, independent 

 of all that Sir Humphry Davy had ever done in the 

 matter." 



To this day, the Geordy lamp continues in regular 

 use in the Killingworth Collieries ; and the Killing-worth 

 pitmen have expressed to the writer their decided pre- 

 ference for it compared with the Davy. It is certainly 

 a strong testimony in its favour, that no accident is 

 known to have arisen from its use, since it was generally 

 introduced into the Killingworth pits. 



run from working with ' Davy ' lamps 

 during the probable recurrence of a 

 similar event. 



" I may remark that the ' Stephen- 

 son ' lamp was originally invented by 

 the great George Stephenson, and in 

 its present shape combines the merits 



of his discovery with that of Sir 

 Humphry Davy constituting, to my 

 mind, the safest lamp at present 

 known, and I speak from the long use 

 of many hundreds daily in various 

 collieries." 



