Geordie Lamp

The Geordie lamp was invented by George Stephenson in 1815 as a solution to explosions due to firedamp in coal mines.

Although controversy arose between Stephenson's design and the Davy Lamp, (invented by Humphry Davy in the same year), Stephenson's original design worked on significantly different principles. If the only way air could get to the flame was restricted (a base-plate pierced by a number of small-bore brass tubes was the usual way of doing this) and the lamp body above the flame lengthened, then the same amount of air could get to the flame, but would pass through the flow restriction at a velocity higher than the velocity of the flame in a mixture of firedamp (mostly methane) and air. This, then, prevented an explosive back-blast that might light the surrounding air.

Stephenson's design used glass to surround the flame, which cut out less of the light than Davy's, where the gauze surrounded it. But this also posed the danger of breakage in the harsh conditions of mine working, which problem was not resolved until the invention of safety glass. Stephenson tried several different designs in early years and later adopted Davy's gauze in preference to the tubes and it was this revised design that was used for most of the 19th century as the Geordie lamp.

The name is possibly the route by which 'Geordie' became the familiar and affectionate epithet for Tynesiders, deriving from a diminutive form of the inventor's first name, George.

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Sources of Information

• [1] Wikipedia