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In 1812, George Stephenson was an engine-wright (a kind of on-site engineer) at Killingworth High Pit in Newcastle upon Tyne. In this role, he was in charge of all of the colliery machines. Because this machinery was above and below ground, Stephenson spent a lot of time down the mines carrying out maintenance and repairs. He was all too well aware of the poor working conditions that the miners had to deal with, and the casualties that took place due to firedamp explosions. Indeed, in a previous role, he had been working at the West Moor pit when a firedamp explosion killed 10 miners.
Firedamp is the combination of several gases, which are highly flammable. This dangerous concoction collects in pockets in the coal, and is explosive between concentrations of 4% and 16%. Given that miners were using candles with open flames to illuminate their work, this was exceptionally dangerous. After the Felling Mine disaster claimed 92 lives in 1812, it became clear that something had to be done to make the working conditions in the mines safer.
Subsequently, the Sunderland Society was set up, and so began Stephenson’s attempts at inventing a lamp that would be safe for use in the mines. His design was based on the fact that a lighted candle could be used inside a lamp – as long as there was sufficient speed to the air passing to the flame. According to a letter that Stephenson wrote to Robert Brandling, which is held in the institution archives, Stephenson went through three different prototypes – with rigorous, dangerous testing – until by 20 November 1815 he had a lamp that he was happy with.
However, at the same time that Stephenson was working on his lamp, Sir Humphry Davy was also designing one of his own. As a recognised scientist, his lamp (which was similar to Stephenson’s, except it used wire gauze instead of a perforated cover) received much more publicity. Davy announced his invention at a meeting of the Royal Society in Newcastle on 9 November 1815. Colliery owners started to commission Davy lamps – which caused a ruckus in the mining community, where Stephenson and his Geordie lamp were already known about.
The Royal Society had awarded Davy £1,000 prize money for his invention – and many local colliery owners, and other members of the society, thought that Stephenson deserved more than the £100 the society had offered him.
Stephenson was later encouraged by Charles Brandling, a Gosforth colliery owner, to produce a pamphlet laying out the individuality of his own design. In it he states: “I constructed a lamp with three tubes and one with small perforations without knowing that Sir Humphrey had adopted the same idea – you are bound to give me credit unless, by evidence of facts and dates, you are able to disprove it.”
After this, a subscription was set up and £1,000 was collected by Newcastle Royal Society members to compensate Stephenson for his invention being overlooked. The Geordie lamp was favoured in the mines of North East England, where Stephenson had a strong reputation as professional and diligent, and was used well into the 19th century.
Today, the principles of the miners’ safety lamp are used for keeping the Olympic torch flame burning. Tradition states that the flame must not go out, so when it’s not on the torch it’s transferred to glass lanterns which act in exactly the same way as the Geordie lamp did.
Where to find out more
Stephenson demonstrated his lamp by taking it down a colliery and holding it in front of a fissure from which firedamp was issuing.
The IMechE holds material about Stephenson’s and Sir Humphry Davy’s lamps which can be viewed online at www.imeche.org/knowledge/library/archive/collections/virtual-archive/george-stephenson