c 45 : 
VII. Some researches on flame. By Sir Humphry Davy, 
LL.D.F.R.S . V.P.R.L 
Read January 16, 1817. 
I have described in three papers which the Royal Society have 
honoured with a place in their Transactions, a number of 
experiments on combustion which show that the explosion of 
gaseous mixtures can be prevented or arrested by various 
cooling influences, and which led me to discover a tissue per- 
meable to light and air, but impermeable to flame, on which 
I founded the invention of the wire gauze safe lamp now 
generally used in all collieries in which inflammable air pre- 
vails, for the preservation of the lives and persons of the 
miners. In a short notice published in the third number of 
the Journal of Science and the Arts, edited at the Royal In- 
stitution, I have given an account of some new results on 
flame, which show that the intensity of the light of flames 
depends principally upon the production and ignition of solid 
matter in combustion, and that the heat and light in this pro- 
cess are in a great measure independent phenomena. Since 
this notice has been printed, I have made a number of re- 
searches on flame ; and as they appear to me to throw some 
new lights on this important subject, and to lead to some prac- 
tical views connected with the useful arts, I shall without any 
farther apology, present them to the Royal Society. 
That greater distinctness may exist in the details, I shalL 
