"In the communications I have seen from Sir H. Davy, no dates are mentioned; and it is by a reference to them only that the question can be fairly decided. For the information of the Meeting, therefore, I shall take the liberty of enclosing some which I received from Mr. Stephenson, to the correctness of which, as far as I am concerned, I can bear testimony; at the same time I beg leave to add, that the principle of admitting hydrogen gas in such small detached portions that it would be consumed by combustion,[41] was, I understand, stated by him to several gentlemen, as the idea he had embraced two months before his lamp was originally constructed."
[41] Granted:--but what connexion has that with the principle of Davy's lamp, or with any _Safety_ lamp?
Mr. Brandling then proceeds to state, that the Killingworth lamp, with a tube to admit the air, and a slide at the bottom of such tube to regulate the quantity to be admitted, was first tried in the Killingworth pits on Saturday October the 21st, 1815; but not being found to burn well, another was ordered the same day with three capillary tubes to admit the air; and on being tried in the mine on the 4th of November following, was found to burn better and to be perfectly _safe_.[42] On the 17th of November, it was _tried_[43] at Killingworth office with inflammable air before Richard Lambert, Esq.; and on the 24th of the same month, before C. J. Brandling, Esq. and Mr. Murray.
[43] "Tried"--but how was it tried?--by forcing in _pure_ fire-damp, which will extinguish any lamp, instead of exposing the flame to an explosive mixture, which could alone furnish any test of its security.
"On the 30th of November," he says, "a lamp was tried in the mine, in which the air was admitted by means of a double row of small perforations, and found to be perfectly safe, and to burn extremely well."[44]
[44] Very likely: but the reader will please to recollect, that Sir H. Davy had, before this, published an account of his principle of safety by systems of tubes or canals.
At an adjourned Meeting of the Coal-owners, held on the 11th of October 1816, J. G. Lambton, Esq. M.P. in the chair; Mr. William Brandling moved--"That the meeting do adjourn, until, by a comparison of dates, it shall be ascertained whether the merit of the Safety-lamp belongs to Sir Humphry Davy or to Mr. George Stephenson."