Lives of George and Robert Stephenson by Samuel Smiles: Part 2: Chapter 6

Chapter VI. Accidents in Mines. Invention of the Geody Safety Lamp.

EXPLOSIONS of fire-damp were unusually frequent in the coalmines of Northumberland and Durham about the time when George Stephenson was engaged in the construction of his first locomotives. These explosions were often attended with fearful loss of life and dreadful suffering to the work-people. Killingworth Colliery was not free from such deplorable calamities; and during the time that Stephenson was employed as brakesman at the West Moor, several "blasts" took place in the pit, by which many workmen were scorched and killed, and the owners of the colliery sustained heavy losses. One of the most serious of these accidents occurred in 1806, not long after he had been appointed brakesman, by which ten persons were killed. Stephenson was near the pit mouth at the time, and the circumstances connected with the explosion made a deep impression on his mind, as appeal's from the graphic account which he gave of it to the Committee of the House of Commons on accidents in mines, some thirty years after the event.

"The pit," said he, "had just ceased drawing coals, and nearly all the men had got out. It was some tune in the afternoon, a little after midday. There were five men that went down the pit; four of them for the purpose of preparing a place for the furnace. The fifth was a person who went down to set them to work. I sent this man down myself, and he had just got to the bottom of the shaft about two or three minutes when the explosion took place.

I had left the mouth of the pit, and had gone about fifty or sixty yards away, when I heard a tremendous noise, looked round, and saw the discharge come out of the pit like the discharge of a cannon. It continued to blow, I think, for a quarter of an hour, discharging every thing that had come into the current. Wood came up, stones came up, and trusses of hay that went up into the air like balloons. Those trusses had been sent down during the day, and I think they had in some measure injured the ventilation of the mine. The ground all round the top of the pit was in a trembling state. I went as near as I durst go; every thing appeared cracking and rending about me. Part of the brattice, which was very strong, was blown away at the bottom of the pits. Very large pumps were lifted from their places, so that the engine could not work. The pit was divided into four by partitions; it was a large pit, fourteen feet in diameter, and partitions were put down at right angles, which made four compartments. The explosion took place in one of those four quarters, but it broke through into all the others at the bottom, and the brattice or partitions were set on fire at the first explosion.

"Nobody durst go near the shafts for some time, for fear of another explosion taking place. At last we considered it necessary to run the rope backward and forward, and give the miners, if there were any at the bottom of the shaft, an opportunity of catching the rope as it came to the bottom. Several men were safely got up in this way; one man, who had got hold of the rope, was being drawn up, when a farther explosion took place while he was still in the shaft, and the increased current which came about him projected him as it were up the shaft; yet he was landed without injury: it was a singular case. The pit continued to blast every two or three hours for about two days. It appears that the coal had taken fire, and as soon as the carbureted hydrogen gas collected in sufficient quantity to reach the part where it was burning, it ignited again; but none of the explosions were equal to the first, on account of many parts of the mine having become filled with azotic gas, or the after-damp of the mine. All the ditches in the countryside were stopped to get water to pour into the pit. We had fire engines brought from Newcastle, and the water was poured in till it came above the fire, and then it was extinguished. The loss to the owners of the colliery by this accident must have been about 20,000."

Another explosion took place in the same pit in 1809, by which twelve persons lost their lives. The blast did not reach the shaft as in the former case, the unfortunate persons in the pit having been suffocated by the after-damp. More calamitous still were the explosions which took place in the neighbouring collieries, one of the worst being that of 1812, in the Felling Pit near Gateshead, a mine belonging to Mr. Brandling, by which no fewer than ninety men and boys were suffocated or burnt to death; and a similar accident occurred in the same pit in the year following, by which twenty-two men and boys perished.

It was natural that Stephenson should devote his attention to the causes of these deplorable accidents, and to the means by which they might, if possible, be prevented. His daily occupation led him to think much and deeply on the subject. As enginewright of a colliery so extensive as that of Killingworth, where there were nearly 160 miles of gallery excavation, in which he personally superintended the working of inclined planes, along which the coals were sent to the pit entrance, he was necessarily very often under ground, and brought face to face with the dangers of fire-damp. From fissures in the roofs of the galleries carbureted hydrogen gas was constantly flowing; and in some of the more dangerous places it might be heard escaping from the crevices of the coal with a hissing noise. Ventilation, firing, and all conceivable modes of drawing out the foul air had been tried, while the more dangerous parts of the galleries were built up.

Still the danger could not be wholly prevented. The miners must necessarily guide their steps through the extensive underground ways with lighted lamps or candles, the naked flame of which, coming in contact with the inflammable air, daily exposed them and their fellow-workers in the pit to the risk of death in one of its most dreadful forms.

One day in the year 1814, a workman hurried into Stephenson's cottage with the startling information that the deepest main of the colliery was on fire! He immediately hastened to the pithead, about a hundred yards off, whither the women and children of the colliery were running, with wildness and terror depicted in every face. In a commanding voice, Stephenson ordered the engine-man to lower him down the shaft in the corve. There was danger, it might be death, before him, but he must go.

He was soon at the bottom, and in the midst of the men, who were paralyzed at the danger which threatened the lives of all in the pit. Leaping from the corve on its touching the ground, he called out, "Are there six men among you who have the courage to follow me? If so, come, and we will put the fire out." The Killingworth pitmen had the most perfect confidence in their enginewright, and they readily volunteered to follow him. Silence succeeded the frantic tumult of the previous minute, and the men set to work with a will. In every mine, bricks, mortar, and tools enough are at hand, and by Stephenson's direction the materials were forthwith carried to the required spot, where, in a very short time, a wall was raised at the entrance to the main, he himself taking the most active part in the work. The atmospheric air was by this means excluded, the fire was extinguished, most of the people in the pit were saved from death, and the mine was preserved.

This anecdote of George Stephenson was related to the writer, near the pit-mouth, by one of the men, Kit Heppel, who had been present, and helped to build up the brick wall by which the fire was stayed, though several of the workmen were suffocated.

Heppel relates that, when down the pit some days after, seeking out the dead bodies, the cause of the accident was the subject of some conversation between himself and Stephenson, and Heppel then asked him, "Can nothing be done to prevent such awful occurrences?" Stephenson replied that he thought something might be done. "Then," said Heppel, "the sooner you begin the better, for the price of coal-mining now is pitmen's lives." Fifty years since, many of the best pits were so full of the inflammable gas given forth by the coal that they could not be worked without the greatest danger, and for this reason some were altogether abandoned. The rudest possible means were adopted of producing light sufficient to enable the pitmen to work by. The phosphorescence of decayed fish-skins was tried; but this, though safe, was very inefficient. The most common method employed was what was called a steel mill, the notched wheel of which, being made to revolve against a flint, struck a succession of sparks, which scarcely served to do more than make the darkness visible. A boy carried the apparatus, working the wheel; and by the imperfect light thus given forth the miner plied his dangerous trade. Candles were only used in those parts of the pit where gas was not abundant. Under this rude system not more than one third of the coal could be worked, while two thirds were left.

What the workmen, not less than the coal-owners, eagerly desired was a lamp that should give forth sufficient light, without communicating flame to the inflammable gas which accumulated in certain parts of the pit. Something had already been done toward the invention of such a lamp by Dr. Clanny, of Sunderland, who, in 1813, contrived an apparatus to which he gave air from the mine through water, by means of bellows. This lamp went out of itself in inflammable gas. It was found, however, too unwieldy to be used by the miners for the purposes of their work, and did not come into general use. A committee of gentlemen interested in coal-mining was formed to investigate the causes of the explosions, and to devise, if possible, some means of preventing them.

At the invitation of that committee, Sir Humphry Davy, then in the full zenith of his reputation, was requested to turn his attention to the subject. He accordingly visited the collieries near Newcastle on the 24th of August, 1815, and at the close of that year, on the 9th of November, 1815, he read before the Royal Society of London his celebrated paper "On the Firedamp of Coal Mines, and on Methods of Lighting the Mine so as to prevent its Explosion." But a humbler though not less diligent and original thinker had been at work before him, and had already practically solved the problem of the Safety-lamp. Stephenson was, of course, well aware of the desire which prevailed in the colliery districts for the invention of a lamp which should give light enough for the miners to work by without exploding the fire-damp, and the painful incidents above described only served to quicken his eagerness to master the difficulty.

For several years he had been engaged, in his own rude way, in making experiments with the fire-damp in the Killingworth mine. The pitmen used to expostulate with him on these occasions, believing the experiments to be fraught with danger. One of the sinkers, called M'Crie, observing him holding up lighted candles to the windward of the "blower" or fissure from which the inflammable gas escaped, entreated him to desist; but Stephenson's answer was, that "he was busy with a plan by which he hoped to make his experiments useful for preserving men's lives." On these occasions the miners usually got out of the way before he lit the gas.

In 1815, although he was very much occupied with the business of the collieries and the improvement of his locomotive engine, he was also busily engaged in making experiments upon the inflammable gas in the Killingworth Pit. As he himself afterward related to the Committee of the House of Commons which sat on the subject of Accidents in Mines in 1835, he imagined that if he could construct a lamp with a chimney so arranged as to cause a strong current, it would not fire at the top of the chimney, as the burnt air would ascend with such a velocity as to prevent the inflammable air of the pit from descending toward the flame; and such a lamp, he thought, might be taken into a dangerous atmosphere without risk of exploding.

Such was Stephenson's theory, when he proceeded to embody his idea of a miner's safety-lamp in a practical form. In the month of August, 1815, he requested his friend Nicholas Wood, the head viewer, to prepare a drawing of a lamp according to the description which he gave him. After several evenings' careful deliberations, the drawing was prepared, and it was shown to several of the head men about the works. "My first lamp," said Stephenson, describing it to the committee above referred to, "had a chimney at the top of the lamp, and a tube at the bottom to admit the atmospheric air, or fire-damp and air to feed the burner or combustion of the lamp. I was not aware of the precise quantity required to feed the combustion; but to know what quantity was necessary, I had a slide at the bottom of the tube in my first lamp, to admit such a quantity of air as might eventually be found necessary to keep up the combustion."

Accompanied by his friend Wood, Stephenson went into Newcastle, and ordered a lamp to be made according to his plan by the Messrs. Hogg, tinmen, at the head of the Side a well-known street in Newcastle. At the same time, he ordered a glass to be made for the lamp at the Northumberland Glass-house in the same town. This lamp was received from the makers on the 21st of October, and was taken to Killingworth for the purpose of immediate experiment " I remember that evening as distinctly as if it had been but yesterday," said Robert Stephenson, describing the circumstances to the author in 1857. "Moodie came to our cottage about dusk, and asked 'if father had got back with the lamp.' 'No.' 'Then I'll wait till he comes,' said Moodie; 'he can't be long now.' In about half an hour, in came my father, his face all radiant. He had the lamp with him! It was at once uncovered and shown to Moodie. Then it was filled with oil, trimmed, and lighted.

All was ready, only the head viewer hadn't arrived. 'Run over to Benton for Nichol, Robert,' said my father to me, * and ask him to come directly; say we're going down the pit to try the lamp.' By this time it was quite-dark, and off I ran to bring Nicholas Wood. His house was at Benton, about a mile off.

There was a short cut through Benton Church-yard, but just as I was about to pass the wicket I saw what I thought was a white figure moving about among the grave-stones. I took it for a ghost! My heart fluttered, and I was in a great fright, but to Nichol's house I must get, so I made the circuit of the churchyard; and when I got round to the other side I looked, and, lo! the figure was still there. But what do you think it was? Only the grave-digger, plying his work at that late hour by the light of his lantern set upon one of the grave-stones! I found Wood at home, and in a few minutes he was mounted and off to my father's. When I got home I was told they had just left it was then about eleven and gone down the shaft to try the lamp in one of the most dangerous parts of the mine."

Arrived at the bottom of the shaft with the lamp, the party directed their steps toward one of the foulest galleries in the pit, where the explosive gas was issuing through a blower in the roof of the mine with a loud hissing noise. By erecting some deal boarding round that part of the gallery into which the gas was escaping, the air was thus made more foul for the purpose of the experiment. After waiting about an hour, Moodie, whose practical experience of fire-damp in pits was greater than that of either Stephenson or Wood, was requested to go into the place which had thus been made foul; and, having done so, he returned, and told them that the smell of the air was such that if a lighted candle were now introduced an explosion must inevitably take place. He cautioned Stephenson as to the danger both to themselves and to the pit if the gas took fire; but Stephenson declared his confidence in the safety of his lamp, and, having lit the wick, he boldly proceeded with it toward the explosive air.

The others, more timid and doubtful, hung back when they came within hearing of the blower; and, apprehensive of the danger, they retired into a safe place, out of sight of the lamp, which gradually disappeared with its bearer in the recesses of the mine.

It was a critical moment, and the danger was such as would have tried the stoutest heart. Stephenson, advancing alone, with his yet untried lamp, in the depths of those underground workings, calmly venturing his life in the determination to discover a mode by which the lives of many might be saved, and death disarmed in these fatal caverns, presented an example of intrepid nerve and manly courage more noble even than that which, in the excitement of battle and the collective impetuosity of a charge, carries a man up to the cannon's mouth.

Advancing to the place of danger, and entering within the fouled air, his lighted lamp in hand, Stephenson held it firmly out, in the full current of the blower, and within a few inches of its mouth. Thus exposed, the flame of the lamp at first increased, then flickered, and then went out; but there was no explosion of the gas. Returning to his companions, who were still at a distance, he told them what had occurred. Having now acquired somewhat more confidence, they advanced with him to a point from which they could observe the experiment repeated, but still at a safe distance. They saw that when the lighted lamp was held within the explosive mixture, there was a great flame; the lamp was almost full of fire; and then it seemed to be smothered out. Again returning to his companions, he re-lighted the lamp, and repeated the experiment. This was done several times, with the same result. At length Wood and Moodie ventured to advance close to the fouled part of the pit; and, in making some of the later trials, Mr. Wood himself held up the lighted lamp to the blower. Such was the result of the first experiments with the first practical Miner's Safety-lamp, and such was the daring resolution of its inventor in testing its qualities.

Before leaving the pit, Stephenson expressed his opinion that, by an alteration of the lamp which he contemplated, he could make it burn better. This was by a change in the slide through which the air was admitted into the lower part of the lamp, under the flame. After making some experiments on the air collected at the blower, by means of bladders which were mounted with tubes of various diameters, he satisfied himself that, when the tube was reduced to a certain diameter, the explosion would not pass through; and he fashioned his slide accordingly, reducing the diameter of the tube until he conceived it was quite safe.

In about a fortnight the experiments were repeated in the pit, in a place purposely made foul as before. On this occasion a larger number of persons ventured to witness the experiments, which again proved successful. The lamp was not yet, however, so efficient as the inventor desired. It required, he observed, to be kept very steady when burning in the inflammable gas, otherwise it was liable to go out, in consequence, as he imagined, of the contact of the burnt air (as he then called it), or azotic gas, which lodged round the exterior of the flame. If the lamp was moved backward and forward, the azote came in contact with the flame and extinguished it. "It struck me," said he, "that if I put more tubes in, I should discharge the poisonous matter that hung round the flame by admitting the air to its exterior part." Although he had then no access to scientific works, nor intercourse with scientific men, nor any thing that could assist him in his inquiries on the subject besides his own indefatigable spirit of inquiry, Stephenson contrived a rude apparatus, by means of which he proceeded to test the explosive properties of the gas and the velocity of current (for this was the direction of his inquiries) required to permit the explosion to pass through tubes of different diameters. In making these experiments in his cottage at the West Moor, Nicholas Wood and George's son Robert usually acted as his assistants, and sometimes the gentlemen of the neighbourhood among others, William Brandling and Matthew Bell, who were interested in coal-mining attended as spectators.

One who was present on such an occasion remembers that, when an experiment was about to be performed, and all was ready, George called to Mr. Wood, who worked the stopcocks of the gasometer, "Wise on [turn on] the hydrogen, Mchol!" These experiments were not performed without risk, for on one occasion the experimenting party had nearly blown off the roof of the cottage. One of these "blows up" was described by Stephenson himself before the Committee on Accidents in Coal Mines in 1835: "I made several experiments," said he, "as to the velocity required in tubes of different diameters, to prevent explosion from fire-damp. We made the mixture in all proportions of light carbureted hydrogen with atmospheric air in the receiver, and we found by the experiments that when a current of the most explosive mixture that we could make was forced up a tube four tenths of an inch in diameter, the necessary current was nine inches in a second to prevent its coming down that tube. These experiments were repeated several times. We had two or three blows up in making the experiments, by the flame getting down into the receiver, though we had a piece of very fine wire-gauze put at the bottom of the pipe, between the receiver and the pipe through which we were forcing the current. In one of these experiments I was watching the flame in the tube, my son was taking the vibrations of the pendulum of the clock, and Mr. Wood was attending to give me the column of water as I called for it, to keep the current up to a certain point. As I saw the flame descending in the tube I called for more water, and Wood unfortunately turned the cock the wrong way; the current ceased, the flame went down the tube, and all our implements were blown to pieces, which at the time we were not very well able to replace." The explosion of this glass receiver, which had been borrowed from the stores of the Philosophical Society at Newcastle for the purpose of making the experiments, caused the greatest possible dismay among the party, and they dreaded to inform Mr. Turner, the secretary, of the calamity which had occurred. Fortunately, none of the experimenters were injured by the accident.

Stephenson followed up these experiments by others of a similar kind, with the view of ascertaining whether ordinary flame would pass through tubes of a small diameter, and with this object he filed off the barrels of several small keys. Placing these together, he held them perpendicularly over a strong flame, and ascertained that it did not pass upward. This was a farther proof to him of the soundness of the principle on which he had been proceeding.

In order to correct the defect of his first lamp, he accordingly proceeded to alter it so as to admit the air to the flame by several tubes of reduced diameter instead of by a single tube. He inferred that a sufficient quantity of air would thus be introduced into the lamp for the purposes of combustion, while the smallness of the apertures would still prevent the explosion passing downward, at the same time that the "burnt air" (the cause, in his opinion, of the lamp going out) would be more effectually dislodged. The requisite alterations were made in the lamp by Mr. Matthews, a tinman in Newcastle, and it was so altered that the air was admitted by three small tubes inserted in the bottom, the openings of which were placed on the outside of the burner, instead of having (as in the original lamp) the one tube opening directly under the flame.

This second or altered lamp was tried in the Killingworth Pit on the 4th of November, and was found to burn better than the first lamp, and to be perfectly safe. But, as it did not yet come up entirely to the inventor's expectations, he proceeded to contrive a third lamp, in which he proposed to surround the oil vessel with a number of capillary tubes. Then it struck him that if he cut off the middle of the tubes, or made holes in metal plates, placed at a distance from each other equal to the length of the tubes, the air would get in better, and the effect in preventing the communication of explosion would be the same.

He was encouraged to persevere in the completion of his safety-lamp by the occurrence of several fatal accidents about this time in the Killingworth Pit. On the 9th of November a boy was killed by a blast in the A pit, at the very place where Stephenson had made the experiments with his first lamp; and, when told of the accident, he observed that if the boy had been provided with his lamp, his life would have been saved. On the 20th of November he went over to Newcastle to order his third lamp from Mr. Watson, a plumber in that town. Mr. Watson referred him to his clerk, Henry Smith, whom Stephenson invited to join him at a neighbouring public house, where they might quietly talk over the matter, and finally settle the plan of the new lamp. They adjourned to the "Newcastle Arms," near the present High-Level Bridge, where they had some ale, and a design of the lamp was drawn in pencil upon a half-sheet of foolscap, with a rough specification subjoined. The sketch, when shown to us by Robert Stephenson some years since, still bore the marks of the ale. It was a very rude design, but sufficient to work from. It was immediately placed in the hands of the workmen, finished in the course of a few days, and experimentally tested in the Killingworth Pit like the previous lamps on the 30th of November, by which date neither Stephenson nor Wood had heard of Sir Humphry Davy's experiments, nor of the lamp which that gentleman proposed to construct.

An angry controversy afterward took place as to the respective merits of George Stephenson and Sir Humphry Davy in respect of the invention of the Safety-lamp. A committee was formed on both sides, and the facts were stated in various ways. It is perfectly clear, however, that Stephenson had ascertained the fact that flame will not pass through tubes of a certain diameter the principle on which the safety-lamp is constructed before Sir Humphry Davy had formed any definite idea on the subject, or invented the model lamp afterward exhibited by him before the Royal Society. Stephenson had actually constructed a lamp on such a principle, and proved its safety, before Sir Humphry had communicated his views on the subject to any person; and by the time that the first public intimation had been given of his discovery, Stephenson's second lamp had been constructed and tested in like manner in the Killingworth Pit. The first was tried on the 21st of October, 1815; the second was tried on the 4th of November; but it was not until the 9th of November that Sir Humphry Davy presented his first lamp to the public. And by the 30th of the same month, as we have seen, Stephenson had constructed and tested his third safety-lamp.

Stephenson's theory of the "burnt air" and the "draught" was no doubt wrong, but his lamp was right, and that was the great fact which mainly concerned him. Torricelli did not know the rationale of his tube, nor Otto von Guericke that of his air-pump; yet no one thinks of denying them the merit of their inventions on that account. The discoveries of Volta and Galvani were in like manner independent of theory; the greatest discoveries consisting in bringing to light certain grand facts, on which theories are afterward framed. Our inventor had been pursuing the Baconian method, though he did not think of that; his sole object being to invent a safe lamp, which he knew could only be done through the process of repeated experiment. Hence his numerous experiments on the fire-damp at the blowers in the mine, as well as on carbureted hydrogen gas in his cottage by means of the apparatus above described. By experiment he distinctly ascertained that the explosion of fire-damp could not pass through small tubes; and he also did what had not before been done by any inventor he constructed a lamp on this principle, and repeatedly proved its safety at the risk of his life. At the same time, there is no doubt that it was to Sir Humphry Davy that the merit belonged of elucidating the true law on which the safety lamp is constructed.

The subject of this important invention excited so much interest in the northern mining districts, and Stephenson's numerous friends considered his lamp so completely successful having stood the test of repeated experiments that they urged him to bring his invention before the Philosophical and Literary Society of Newcastle, of whose apparatus he had availed himself in the course of his experiments on fire-damp. After much persuasion he consented to do so, and a meeting was appointed for the purpose of receiving his explanations on the evening of the 5th of December, 1815. Stephenson was at that time so diffident in manner and unpractised in speech, that he took with him his friend Nicholas Wood to act as his interpreter and expositor on the occasion. From eighty to a hundred of the most intelligent members of the society were present at the meeting, when Mr. Wood stood forward to expound the principles on which the lamp had been formed, and to describe the details of its construction. Several questions were put, to which Mr. Wood proceeded to give replies to the best of his knowledge. But Stephenson, who up to that time had stood behind Wood, screened from notice, observing that the explanations given were not quite correct, could no longer control himself, and, standing forward, he proceeded in his strong Northumbrian dialect to describe the lamp down to its minutest details. He then produced several bladders full of carbureted hydrogen, which he had collected from the blowers in the Killingworth mine, and proved the safety of his lamp by numerous experiments with the gas, repeated in various ways, his earnest and impressive manner exciting in the minds of his auditors the liveliest interest both in the inventor and his invention.

Shortly after, Sir H. Davy's model lamp was received and exhibited to the coal-miners at Newcastle, on which occasion the observation was made by several gentlemen, "Why, it is the same as Stephenson's!"

Notwithstanding Stephenson's claim to be regarded as the first inventor of the Tube Safety-lamp, his merits do not seem to have been generally recognized. Sir Humphry Davy carried off the larger share of the eclat which attached to the discovery. What chance had the unknown workman of Killingworth with so distinguished a competitor? The one was as yet but a colliery engine-wright, scarce raised above the manual-labour class, without chemical knowledge or literary culture, pursuing his experiments in obscurity, with a view only to usefulness; the other was the scientific prodigy of his day, the pet of the Royal Society, the favourite of princes, the most brilliant of lecturers, and the most popular of philosophers.

No small indignation was expressed by the friends of Sir Humphry Davy at Stephenson's "presumption" in laying claim to the invention of the Safety-lamp. The scientific class united to ignore him entirely in the matter. In 1831, Dr. Paris, in his "Life of Sir Humphry Davy," thus wrote: "It will hereafter be scarcely believed that an invention so eminently scientific, and which could never have been derived but from the sterling treasury of science, should have been claimed on behalf of an engine-wright of Killingworth, of the name of Stephenson a person not even possessing a knowledge of the elements of chemistry."

But Stephenson was really far above claiming for himself an invention not his own. He had already accomplished a far greater thing even than the making of a safety-lamp: he had constructed a successful locomotive, which was to be seen in daily work on the Killingworth Railway. By the improvements he had made in the engine, he might almost be said to have invented it; yet no one not even the philosophers detected as yet the significance of that wonderful machine. It excited no scientific interest, called forth no leading articles in the newspapers or the reviews, and formed the subject of no eloquent lectures at the Royal Society; for railways were as yet comparatively unknown, and the might which slumbered in the locomotive was scarcely, as yet, even dreamed of. What railways were to become rested in a great measure with that "engine-wright of Killingworth, of the name of Stephenson," though he was scarcely known as yet beyond the bounds of his own district.

As to the value of the invention of the safety-lamp there could be no doubt, and the colliery owners of Durham and Northumberland, to testify their sense of its importance, determined to present a testimonial to its inventor. The friends of Sir H. Davy met in August, 1816, to take steps to raise a subscription for the purpose. The advertised object of the meeting was to present him with a reward for the invention of his safety-lamp. To this no objection could be taken; for, though the principle on which the safety-lamps of Stephenson and Davy were constructed was the same, and although Stephenson's lamp was unquestionably the first successful lamp that had been constructed on such principle, and proved to be efficient, yet Sir H. Davy did invent a safety-lamp, no doubt quite independently of all that Stephenson had done; and having directed his careful attention to the subject, and elucidated the true theory of explosion of carbureted hydrogen, he was entitled to all praise and reward for his labour.

But when the meeting of coal-owners proposed to raise a subscription for the purpose of presenting Sir II. Davy with a reward for "his invention of the safety-lamp," the case was entirely altered, and Stephenson's friends then proceeded to assert his claims to be regarded as its first inventor.

Many meetings took place on the subject, and much discussion ensued, the result of which was that a sum of £2,000 was presented to Sir Humphry Davy as "the inventor of the safety lamp;" but, at the same time, a purse of 100 guineas was voted to George Stephenson, in consideration of what he had done in the same direction. This result was, however, very unsatisfactory to Stephenson, as well as to his friends; and Mr. Brandling, of Gosforth, suggested to him that, the subject being now fairly before the public, he should publish a statement of the facts on which his claim was founded.

But this was not at all in George Stephenson's line. He had never appeared in print before, and it seemed to him a far more formidable thing to write a letter for publication in "the papers" than even to invent a safety-lamp or design a locomotive. Having called his son Robert to his assistance, he set him down before a sheet of foolscap, and when all was ready, he said, "Now, put down there just what I tell you." The composition of this letter, as we were informed by the writer of it, occupied more evenings than one; and when it was at length finished after many corrections, and fairly copied out, the father and son set out the latter dressed in his Sunday's round jacket to lay the joint production before Mr. Brandling, at Gosforth House.

Glancing over the letter, Mr. Brandling said, "George, this will never do." "It is all true, sir," was the reply. "That may be; but it is badly written." Robert blushed, for he thought it was the penmanship that was called in question, and he had written his very best. Mr. Brandling then requested his visitors to sit down while he put the letter in a more polished form, which he did, and it was shortly after published in the local papers.

As the controversy continued for some time longer to be carried on in the Newcastle papers, Mr. Stephenson, in the year 1817, consented to publish the detailed plans, with descriptions, of the several safety-lamps which he had contrived for use in the Killingworth Colliery. The whole forms a pamphlet of only sixteen pages of letter-press.

His friends, being fully satisfied of his claims to priority as the inventor of the safety-lamp used in the Killingworth and other collieries, proceeded to hold a public meeting for the purpose of presenting him with a reward "for the valuable service he had thus rendered to mankind." Charles J. Brandling, Esq., occupied the chair; and several resolutions were passed, of which the first and most important was as follows: "That it is the opinion of this meeting that Mr. George Stephenson, having discovered the fact that explosion of hydrogen gas will not pass through tubes and apertures of small dimensions, and having been the first to apply that principle in the construction of a safety-lamp, is entitled to a public reward." A subscription was immediately commenced with this object, and a committee was formed, consisting of the Earl of Strathmore, C. J. Brandling, and others. The subscription list was headed by Lord Ravensworth, one of the partners in the Killingworth Colliery, who showed his appreciation of the merits of Stephenson by giving 100 guineas. C. J. Brandling and partners gave a like sum, and Matthew Bell and partners, and John Brandling and partners, gave 50 guineas each.

When the resolutions appeared in the newspapers, the scientific friends of Sir Humphry Davy in London met, and passed a series of counter-resolutions, which they published, declaring their opinion that Mr. Stephenson was not the author of the discovery of the fact that explosion of hydrogen will not pass through tubes and apertures of small dimensions, and that he was not the first to apply that principle to the construction of a safety-lamp. To these counter-resolutions were attached the well-known names of Sir Joseph Banks, P.R.S., William Thomas Brande, Charles Hatchett, W. H. Wollaston, and Thomas Young.

Mr. Stephenson's friends then, to make assurance doubly sure, and with a view to set the question at rest, determined to take evidence in detail as to the date of discovery by George Stephenson of the fact in question, and its practical application by him in the formation and actual trial of his safety-lamp. The witnesses examined were George Stephenson himself, Mr. Nicholas Wood, and John Moodie, who had been present at the first trial of the lamp; the several tinmen who made the lamps; the secretary and other members of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle, who were present at the exhibition of the third lamp; and some of the workmen who were present at the Killingworth Colliery, who had been witnesses of Stephenson's experiments on fire-damp made with the lamps lat different times before Sir Humphry Davy's investigations had been heard of.

This evidence was quite conclusive to the minds of the gentlemen who investigated the subject, and they published it in 1817, together with their Report, 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 £1,000. Part of the money was devoted to the purchase 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. But what gave Stephenson even greater pleasure than the silver tankard and purse of sovereigns was the gift of a silver watch, purchased by small subscriptions collected among the colliers themselves, 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 watch as the most highly-prized gift he had ever received.

However great maybe the merits of Stephenson in connection with the invention of the tube safety-lamp, they can not be regarded as detracting in any degree from the reputation of Sir Humphry Davy. His inquiries into the explosive properties of carbureted hydrogen gas were quite original, 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 verification of the same fact. It would even appear that Mr. Smithson Tennant and Dr. Wollaston had observed the same fact several years before, though neither Stephenson nor Davy knew of it while they were prosecuting their experiments.

Sir Humphry Davy's subsequent modification of the tube-lamp, by which, while diminishing the diameter, he in the same ratio shortened the tubes without danger, and in the form of wire gauze enveloped the safety-lamp by a multiplicity of tubes, was a beautiful application of the true theory which he had formed upon the subject.

The increased number of accidents which have occurred from explosions in coal-mines since the general introduction of the Davy lamp led to considerable doubts being entertained as to its safety, and inquiries were consequently made as to the means by which it might be farther improved; for experience has shown that, under certain circumstances, the Davy lamp is not safe.

Stephenson was himself of opinion that the modification of his own and Sir Humphry Davy's lamp, by combining the glass cylinder with the wire-gauze, would give the best lamp. At the same time, it must be admitted that the Davy and the Geordy lamps alike failed to stand the severe tests to which they were submitted by Dr. Pereira, before the Committee on Accidents in Mines. Indeed, Dr. Pereira did not hesitate to say that, when exposed to a current of explosive gas, the Davy lamp is "decidedly unsafe," and that the experiments by which its safety had been "demonstrated" in the lecture-room had proved entirely "fallacious." It is worthy of remark that, under circumstances in which the wire-gauze of the Davy lamp becomes red-hot from the high explosiveness of the gas, the Geordy lamp is extinguished; and we can not but think that this fact testifies to the decidedly superior safety of the Geordy.

An accident occurred in the Oaks Colliery Pit at Barnsley on the 20th of August, 1857, which strikingly exemplified the respective qualities of the lamps. A sudden outburst of gas took place from the floor of the mine along a distance of fifty yards. Fortunately, the men working in the pit at the time were all supplied with safety-lamps the hewers with Stephenson's, and the hurriers with Davy's. On this occasion, the whole of the Stephenson lamps, over a space of five hundred yards, were extinguished almost instantaneously; whereas the Davy lamps were filled with fire and became red-hot, so that several of the men using them had their hands burnt by the gauze. Had a strong current of air been blowing through the gallery at the time, an explosion would most probably have taken place an accident which, it will be observed, could not, under such circumstances, occur from the use of the Geordy, which is immediately extinguished as soon as the air becomes explosive.*

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 Kidley asked Robert Stephenson, who was present, for his opinion on the subject. His answer was, "I am not exactly the person to give an unbiased 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 invented the safety-lamp, as I believe he did, independently of all that Sir Humphry Davy had done in the matter." To this day the Geordy lamp continues in regular use in the Killingworth Collieries, and the Killingworth pitmen have expressed to the writer their decided preference 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.

• Lives of George and Robert Stephenson by Samuel Smiles
• Lives of George and Robert Stephenson by Samuel Smiles: Part 2: Chapter 5
• Lives of George and Robert Stephenson by Samuel Smiles: Part 2: Chapter 7

See Also

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