Talk:Davy lamp

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Untitled[edit]

My reference for accident rate isn't quite working and I don't have time to figure it out. Should be: Christopher Lawrence, The power and the glory: Humphry Davy and Romanticism, reference in Andrew Cunningham and Nicholas Jardine, Romanticism and the Sciences Cambridge: University Press, 1990 page 224

1815 date for invention added[edit]

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I added the first five that came up (for the invention being in 1815 - I remember it from school). There appears to be no dispute about the date as far as I can deduce. Do I still leave the ..citation needed.. after? (sorry can't remember the exact nowiki config. Newbie apologies)

PS is there a limit to how many citations are considered enough?

If 1's ok when it's reputable, can someone replace all five with this ............ http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/davy_humphrey.shtml ............

BBC is considered reputable round here, but it ain't foolproof....

ttfn --Ganpati23 (talk) 01:59, 11 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The BBC source says this:

"In 1815, he received a letter from some Newcastle miners which told of the dangers they faced from methane gas. The gas often filled the mines, and could be sparked off by the candles they had in their helmets to light their work. The resulting fires and explosions caused many deaths. Davy separated the flame from the gas, and his 'Davy' lamp later became widely used. The same year George Stephenson, the railway engineer, also invented a safety lamp"

So, alhtough it says GS invented his in 1815, it does not explicitly say when HD invented his? Martinevans123 (talk) 12:39, 11 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The references are sufficient. Catfish Jim and the soapdish 14:41, 11 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Note: Knight, David (1992) Humphry Davy: Science and Power. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0631168168, tells that the news about Davy's lamp was made public at a Royal Society meeting in Newcastle on 3 November 1815, and the paper describing the lamp was formally presented on 9 November. For it Davy was awarded he Society's Rumford Medal. It is worth noting hat Davy's invention was preceeded by that of William Reid Clanny by over two years. An Irish doctor at Bishopwearmouth, Reid Clanny read his paper in May 1813. His lamp was successfully trialled at Harrington Mill and he too won medals (from the Royal Society for Arts). Martinevans123 (talk) 19:07, 11 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Help Please- other sources incl. wiki dispute 1816....[edit]

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Stephenson#The_miners.27_safety_lamp

http://www.minerslamps.net/homepage/safetylamphistory.htm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/davy_humphrey.shtml

All 3 say the same year, (i.e.1815), possibly one month before, not 1816. How should I edit this, when the page says that the first trials were in January 1816?

Indeed, your own Stevenson wiki page, cites a (referenced) Parliamentary enquiry saying GS had equal claim to HD as inventor of the lamp.

I would leave it as it is. Catfish Jim and the soapdish 14:42, 11 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

See Safety lamp#Timeline of the development of the safety lamp. Davy did announce his lamp in 1815 (Nov 3) and presented the paper (Nov 9), but it was not actually tried out in a mine until 1816 (Jan 9). Meanwhile Stephenson tried out his improved lamp in 1815 (Nov 4 and 30), presenting the paper also in 1815 (Dec 5). So, to answer your original query, the Davy was invented in 1815, but the first trials were in 1816.

I'm currently working on the Safty lamp page to try and pull all the different threads together into a comprehensive whole. Martin of Sheffield (talk) 09:56, 1 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Strange claim[edit]

"). A methane-air flame is extinguished at about 17% oxygen content (which will still support life), so the lamp gave an early indication of an unhealthy atmosphere, allowing the miners to get out before they died of asphyxiation."

Interesting, if true. However, the lamp is normally burning vegetable oil, not methane. And if the issue is high levels of carbon dioxide reducting the oxygen concentration to hazardously low levels, then it isn't going to be burning methane, either. It's still going to be burning the vegetable oil ( or kerosene , or whatever else you can burn in it ).Lathamibird (talk) 12:59, 9 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]