In an effort to reduce accidental deaths in mines, Dr William Clanny created the world's first safety lamp, writes Mary Mulvihill
The miners' safety lamp saved countless lives and helped make mines safer. It is generally credited to the English chemist Sir Humphry Davy,who designed a safety lamp in 1815, but the first safety lamp had been invented two years previously by an Irish doctor, William Clanny (1776-1850).
Clanny's name is almost forgotten, but "Clanny lamps" were popular in the 19th century. The safest lamps were those that incorporated both Clanny's and Davy's designs, and today the Encyclopaedia Britannica credits Clanny with inventing the first safety lamp.
It was the presence of flammable and explosive gases, notably methane (known as firedamp), that made mines dangerous. Miners sometimes lit fires to create air currents and ventilate the shafts, but any methane in the air could cause a violent explosion.
The greatest risk, however, was from the naked candle flames that miners used to light their work. With lives at stake, the race was on to design a safer light.
William Clanny was born in Bangor, Co Down, studied medicine at Edinburgh and after serving in the navy, went into private practice in Sunderland, near the coal mining district of Durham. He began working on a safety lamp in 1811, and presented his first design to the Royal Philosophical Society in May 1813 in a paper entitled On the means of procuring a steady light in coal mines without danger of explosion.
His was an oil lamp, covered by a glass lantern, and isolated from the surrounding atmosphere by water seals; a bellows supplied air to the wick. It was bulky and had to be constantly pumped, but it was tried in several mines in 1816, and Humphry Davy pronounced it "an ingenious arrangement".
Davy's own lamp, unveiled in 1815, took a different approach, using a metal gauze "chimney" to shield the flame and absorb the potentially dangerous heat. The English railway engineer George Stephenson invented yet another safety lamp that year. His relied on the pressure of the flame's exhaust to keep explosive gases out, and retained the flame by drawing in air at high speed.
All of these early designs had drawbacks - Clanny's had to be continuously pumped, for instance, and Davy's had to be constantly watched. And all were defeated by strong air currents.
Improved designs were introduced over the years, and the best combined the principles devised by Clanny and Davy. Clanny himself designed five further safety lamps, and won numerous honours.
In his final lamp, invented in 1840 and known as the "Clanny", a glass cylinder surrounded the flame, and air was supplied through a wire gauze.
Wiliam Clanny died 153 years ago, on January 10th, 1850, near Sunderland.
Mary Mulvihill's book, Ingenious Ireland: a county by county exploration of Irish mysteries and marvels, was published by TownHouse last November.