Mine safety lamp

L 45 Explosives at coal and other safety-lamp mines... 

It must be remembered that methane can be liberated in a coal mine, not only in the coal itself, but in the nearby stone. It is therefore necessary to use permitted explosives, both in and near a seam of coal. Further, before any shot is fired in a coal mine, tests are made for the presence of methane in the air by means of a safety lamp. This safety lamp is the well-known Davy lamp and an experienced operator can judge the presence of methane in the air from the appearance of the flame. Tests are made... 

Gassy coal mine. A mine in which methane may be present also known as a safety lamp mine. 

Safety lamp mine. Alternative name for gassy mine, implying possible presence of methane. 

Coal Mines, Determination of Firedamp and of Coal Dust In Atmospheres of. Although many instruments have been designed to detect the presence of firedamp (or rather methane) in mine atmospheres, the principles of the flame safety lamp (Davy-type lamp) still form the basis of many detectors. The Davy lamp invented in 1815 is briefly described under COAL MINE EXPLOSIONS AND FIRES and it is stated that each US mine should have at least two Davy-type lamps to serve as detectors of firedamp or of lack of oxygen. If firedamp is present in small quantity, the flame of Davy lamp elongates and if the gas is present in considerable quantity, the lamp becomes filled with blue flame. For more definite detection of gas, the flame of the lamp is lowered until the yel part is at a minimum. Then the gas will be discernible as a small blue cap over the flame. This method is described in Refs 1, 9, 12 25. Some investigators consider that the safety lamp method of detection of firedamp is not very reliable (Ref 7)... 

Davy, Sir Humphry (1778-1829)- An Engl chemist who isolated Na, K, Ba, Ca Sr metals by electrolysis and devised the miner s safety lamp, briefly described in Vol 3, P C362-R, under Coal Mine Explosions and Fires Ref Hackh s (1946), 253-54... 

Coal Mines, Determination of Firedamp and of Coal Dust in Atmospheres of. Although many instruments have been designed to detect the presence of firedamp (or rather methane) in mine atmospheres, the principles of the flame safety lamp (Davy-type lamp) still form the basis of many detectors. The Davy lamp invented in 1815 is briefly described under... 

Flame safety lamp as a detector for firedamp) 10)W.M-Schweickart, USP 2195842 (1940) CA 34, 5275 ( 1940) (App for empirical detnof dust in bituminous coal mines) 10a)J.Formanek, H ornikyVestnik 22,... 

Chlorine bleach is developed by Claude Louis BerthoUet in France Alessandro Volta makes a Copper/Zinc acid battery Humphry Davy invents a safety lamp that is used in coal mines without triggering an explosion... 

CA 31, 5631 (1937) (A device for detecting firedamp in mines) 6)R-Kattwinkel, Gliickauf 74, 482-84 (1938 CA 33, 3157 (1938) (New app for the study of firedamp) 7)F.Le-beter. Colliery Engrg 16, 245-48 (1939) CA 33, 9647 (I939) (Discussion of the Ringrose and McLuckie appliances and statement that detection of firedamp by means of a safety lamp is liable to many errors) 8)T D.Jones... 

PERSONAL PROTECTION wear thick working gloves and safety glasses all persons who work below ground and on designated sites on the mine surface should be provided with suitable protective helmets an approved dust respirator and a miners safety lamp are also required. 

In 1815, Humphry Davy was invited by the Chairman of a Society for Preventing Accidents in Coal Mines to invent a solution. His elegant and simple invention is shown (Pigure 246) in the frontispiece of his 1818 book On The Safety Lamp For Coal Miners With Some Researches On Flame. Davy had earlier studied flames and their propagation and noted that flames could not propagate through small holes. Thus, his solution was merely to surround the lamp with a cylinder of wire mesh that still left the flame open to the atmosphere. The mesh conducted away the heat of the flame, thus cooling it so that the temperature methane would encounter at the lamp would be lower than its flash point. The flame itself could not penetrate the mesh. ... 

Sir Humphry Davy was an English scientist, who discovered metals such as potassium, sodium, barium, strontium, calcium and magnesium. His most famous invention was a safety lamp for use in coal mines where the highly inflammable gas, methane, is often found. Davy first proposed the name for the element with the symbol Al and called it alumium, but he changed his mind, a few years later, and called it aluminum. Many British users disliked this name, however, because it didn t conform with the ium ending given in the names of metals and adopted the name aluminium. Americans still prefer aluminum, which is why you will see this spelling in their textbooks. 

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