When it is remembered that the security thus conferred upon the labouring community, is not merely the privilege of the age in which the discovery was effected, but must be extended to future times, and continue to preserve human life as long as coal is dug from our mines, can there be found in the whole compass of art or science, an invention more useful and glorious?
The wire-gauze lamp has now been several years extensively used in the mines, and the most satisfactory and unequivocal testimonies have been published of the complete security which it affords. They have amongst the miners obtained the name of _Davys_; and such is the confidence of the work men in their efficacy, that by their aid they enter the most explosive atmospheres, and explore the most remote caverns, without the least dread of their old enemy the _fire-damp_.
Into the mines of foreign countries the Safety-lamp has been introduced with similar success; and the illustrious discoverer has been repeatedly gratified by accounts of the enthusiasm with which his invention has been adopted in various parts of Europe.[38]
[38] A pamphlet appeared at Mons, in the year 1818, on the explosions that occur in coal mines, and on the means of preventing them by Davy's Safety-lamp. It was published under the direction of the Chamber of Commerce and Manufactures of Mons, accompanied by notes, and by the results of a series of experiments that had been conducted by M. Gossart, President of the Chamber. The province of Hainault is said to be richer in coal mines than any other part of the Continent of Europe, and to have no less than one hundred thousand persons employed in the working them. The same kind of dangerous accidents occurred in these mines as in those of the North of England, and various expedients had been adopted for their prevention, which, however, availed but little in obviating them. "All the precautions," observe the reporters, "which had been hitherto known or practised, had not been able to preserve the unfortunate miners from the terrible effects of explosion. It is therefore an inappreciable benefit which we confer by making known the equally simple and infallible method of preventing these accidents, which has been discovered by the celebrated Humphry Davy."