SAFETY-LA- MR 
If you do fight in safeguard of your wives. 
Your wives shall welcome home the conquerors. Shalcspeare. 
Convoy; guard through any interdicted road, granted by 
the possessor.—Pass; warrant to pass.—A trumpet was sent 
to the Earl of Essex for a safeguard or pass to two lords, to 
deliver a message from the king to the two houses. Cla¬ 
rendon. —An outer petticoat to save women’s clothes on 
horse-back. Mason. 
Behind her on a pillion sat 
Her frantick husband, in a broad-brim’d hat, 
A mask and safe-guard; and had in his hand 
His mad wife’s distaff for a riding-wand. Drayton. 
SAFE-GUARD, in a Law sense, signifies a protection 
given by the king to a person fearing the violence of some 
other, for seeking his right by a course of law: or more 
generally, a safe-guard and passport are a kind of privilege, 
which give persons a right to go and come safely, or a right 
"d? removing certain things in safety. 
SAFE-GUARD, at Sea, denotes a rope which saves and 
secures any thing: for instance, that by which persons walk 
securely over the bolt-sprit. 
SAFE-GUARD OF THE HELM, is a rope which goes 
through the helm, and is fastened to the futtocks of the ship. 
To SAFEGUARD, v. a. To guard; to protect.—Cou¬ 
rage is the greatest security; for it does most commonly 
safeguard the man; but always rescues the condition from 
an intolerable evil. Bp. Taylor. 
SA'FELY, adv. In a safe manner; without danger. 
All keep aloof, and safely shout around; 
But none presumes to give a nearer wound. Dryden. 
Without hurt.—God safely quit her of her burthen, and 
>vith gentle travel, to the gladding of your highness with an 
heir. Shalcspeare. 
SA'FENESS, s. Exemption from danger.—If a man 
should forbear his food or his business; till he had certainty 
of the safeness of what he is going about, he must starve and 
die disputing. South. 
SAFE-PLEDGE, Salvus plegius, in Lav:, a security 
given for a man’s appearance on a day assigned. 
SA'FETY, s. Freedom from danger. 
To that dauntless temper of his mind, 
He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valour 
To act in safety. Shalcspeare. 
Exemption from hurt. 
If her acts have been directed well. 
While with her friendly clay she deign’d to dwell, 
Shall she with safety reach her pristine seat. 
Find her rest endless, and her bliss complete ? Prior. 
Preservation from hurt. 
Let not my jealousies be your dishonours. 
But mine own safeties: you may be rightly just, 
Whatever I shall think. Shalcspeare 
Custody; security from escape. 
Imprison him ; 
Deliver him to safety, and return. Shalcspeare. 
SAFETY-LAMP, s. A lamp used in coal mines; con¬ 
structed so as to prevent the explosion of the fire-damp. 
The dreadful effects that have resulted to miners from in¬ 
cautiously bringing common lights into contact with the 
explosive gas engendered in coal-pits, have induced several 
philanthropists to attempt the discovery of some instrument 
whereby light might be given while explosion should be 
prevented. 
For the safety-lamp in its present commodious and almost 
perfect form, we are indebted to Sir H. Davy; but the prin¬ 
ciple on which it was constructed seems to have been dis¬ 
covered a short time before, by Mr. George Stephenson, a 
very intelligent and modest individual, at the time of the 
invention only a viewer in one of the Newcastle mines. 
535 
So early as the beginning of the year 1815, attempts hacl 
been made by different gentlemen to construct a lamp that 
might be carried without danger into the explosive gas. The 
names of Mr. Brandling and Mr. Murray, are particularly 
mentioned as the proposers of a method of supplying the 
lamp with pure air brought through flexible tubes from a 
distant source, and completely excluding any commu¬ 
nication between the inside of the lamp and the gas 
that might surround it externally. Dr. Clanny also invented 
a mode of burning a candle in safety, by passing the un¬ 
necessary for its combustion, by means of bellows, through 
a stratum of water. Neither of these plans came, however, 
into general use, probably on account of their complexity and 
expensiveness. 
In this state of things, Mr. Stephenson discovered that if a 
lamp were placed in the most explosive mixture that could 
be found, and only suffered to communicate with that mix¬ 
ture through capillary tubes, no explosion would take place. 
He made, therefore, a lantern surrounded by glass, and only 
open at the top and bottom by means of capillary tubes. It 
was very successful. 
In the month of December, in the same year, Sir 
Humphrey advanced a step further, by announcing that 
flame could not under any circumstances, (except a very 
high temperature), pass through capillary tubes, or even 
through the mere apertures of a fine wire-gauze, and he 
seemed to attribute this phenomenon to a cooling process 
taking place in the tube or aperture. Stephenson steadily 
pursued his principle in the construction of two other lamps, 
while, on the other hand, Sir H. Davy, at a later period, as we 
shall presently shew, returned to Stephenson’s modification 
of the principle. 
In the warmth of discussion which took place as to the 
respective merits of these gentlemen, the friends of Stephen¬ 
son have surmised that Sir IL. Davy might have received a 
knowledge of the principle he has so successfully applied to 
practice, from the persons to whom the former had com¬ 
municated it. Such a communication is just possible; but 
is in the highest degree improbable. It is iucredible that a 
man held in such estimation as Sir Humphrey, would risk his 
fame by a base attempt at purloining another man’s dis¬ 
covery, even were his mind so little ennobled by the pur¬ 
suits of science, that he would not disdain such meanness. 
It is also certain, that if he tried the experiments on flame, 
which he mentions, he could not easily avoid stumbling on the 
principle in question. It seems, therefore) reasonable to con¬ 
clude (as it is clear that Stephenson had no means of know¬ 
ing, at any stage of the discovery, Sir Humphrey’s occu¬ 
pations), that both these men are the fortunate discoverers 
of the fact, that hydrogen gas will not communicate its 
flame through the tubes or apertures of a lantern, and that 
both applied the fact to practice, unconscious of each other’s 
proceedings. We may add, that, in our opinion, Sir H. 
Davy’s is the more complete invention of the two; but as 
this is a point concerning which there may be some dif¬ 
ference of opinion, we shall presently lay an account of each 
kind before our readers. 
With respect to priority, we must accord this to Mr. Ste¬ 
phenson’s invention, and the evidence on which this opinion 
is founded, is of the most accurate and satisfactory kind. 
The coal owners who voted their thanks and presented a 
piece of plate to Sir H. Davy, refused the previous inquiry 
as to whether he were really the first inventor; but a com¬ 
mittee of the most respectable gentlemen connected with the 
coal trade, having the Earl of Strathmore for president, was 
formed. They entered fully and patiently into every par¬ 
ticular, with respect to dates, that could be obtained; they 
examined the workmen who had been present during Ste¬ 
phenson’s experiments, and those to whom he had commu¬ 
nicated his ideas. These all told the same story. The com: 
mittee next examined the persons employed to construct his 
lamp, whose books of course afforded written evidence of 
the date of the inventions; and, lastly, asked of Mr. Ste¬ 
phenson an aceount of the steps by which he had been led 
to 
