73 
Sir H. Davy’s researches on flame. 
in which the radiating surface is considerably greater, and 
the circulation of air iess, preserves an equal temperature. 
Indeed the heat communicated to the wire by combustion of 
the fire-damp in wire-gauze lamps, is completely in the 
power of the manufacturer, for by diminishing the apertures 
and increasing the mass of metal, or the radiating surface, it 
may be diminished to any extent. 
I have lately had lamps made of thick twilled gauze of 
wires of sixteen to the warp, and thirty to the weft, which 
being rivetted to the screw, cannot be displaced ; from its 
flexibility it cannot be broken, and from its strength cannot 
be crushed, except by a very strong blow. 
Even in the common lamps the flexibility of the material 
has been found of great importance, and I could quote one 
instance of a dreadful accident having been prevented, which 
must have happened had any other material than wire-gauze 
been employed in the construction of the lamp : and how 
little difficulty has occurred in the practical application of the 
invention, is shown by the circumstance, that it has been now 
for ten months in the hands of hundreds of common miners 
in the most dangerous mines in Britain, during which time 
not a single accident has occurred where it has been em- 
ployed, whilst in other mines, much less dangerous, where 
it has not yet been adopted, some lives have been lost, and 
many persons burned.* 
* Plates of different forms of this lamp are annexed, (PI. V.) They are applicable to 
all purposes in which explosions or inflammations are to be guarded against, whether 
from fire damp, or carburetted hydrogene, coal gas, vapours of spirits, or of ether. 
And by the introduction of glass cylinders within the wire-gauze cylinder above the 
flame, the wick may be made very large, and it burns on the principle of the Liverpool 
lamp. 
MDCCCXVII. 
L 
