Historic mining lamp question

[caving_fox]

Can anyone tell me anything more about this lamp?

All I know was that an uncle recovered it in the 50s? from a cottage in South? Wales, believed to have been in use. It has since made it's way to my parents house where I saw it over the festive period. - the closest I got to underground.

If you want to see anything else I can probably get the photos sent to me. Just curious really, so anything at all - type of mine, likely age etc would be great. (or other places to ask)

Thanks in advance for any replies!

 

[tomferry]

It is definitely a safety lamp for a coal mine I don’t believe they was common use for iron mines but some times did happen . The flame change’s multiple ways for detecting certain gases . Each morning the miner collected one from the lamp man , took it and a pit tag with a number on it , in the event of the accident they would see a tag is missing and no lamp 10 is still out there with such and such .

I am no lamp expert but I believe that’s a self lighting one which means the lamp man didn’t light it for you & you could re light it with no naked flame if it went out due to low o2 re lighten would tell you jf below roughly 17% for arguments sake

 

[Mrs Trellis]

They're generally called Davy (miners' safety) lamps after the engineer/scientist Sir Humphrey Davy.

minerslamp.co.uk.Home

Miners Lamps are us! We have original miners safety lamps and parts for sale, buy a complete lamp , or purchase service items to restore your existing mining lamp

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[AR]

That's the make of safety lamp commonly used in the South Wales coalfield, as far as I know. As mentioned, they should go out if the oxygen level drops to around 17-18%, and you also will see changes to the flame if there are flammable gases like methane in the atmosphere - a trained user (and there are a few such people on UKC) can gauge the level of such gases from the "cap" on the flame, pit deputies in particular were tasked with checking the active workings of a coal mine in this manner to see if it was safe to work or not.

 

[Wayland Smith]

I am no lamp expert but I believe that’s a self lighting one which means the lamp man didn’t light it for you & you could re light it with no naked flame if it went out due to low o2 re lighten would tell you jf below roughly 17% for arguments sake

Just to clarify.
It is capable of being re-lit (by connecting to a battery) without opening the lamp.
However, this would only have been done in a designated safe place, by a trained and authorized man.
A normal miner was strictly forbidden from relighting his own lamp.

 

[JackSherlock]

Looks derived from the Geordie Lamp - invented by George Stepheson. Main difference being that the flame is surrounded by glass, rather than metal gauze of a Davy lamp.

 

[Tangent_tracker]

There are some superb groups on Facebook with folks who know a great deal. I know one of the Goodluck chaps is also very knowledgable, just cannot remember his name atm!
I don't think this is a special lamp in this case, probably worth £40-60 or so but it's a nice bit of history and it at least looks like an original lamp, not a souvenir.
If it does not have a lock (although it may have been de-activated) it would not have been allowed underground in coal or other gassy mines...
Now do not let anyone tell you this uses naptha fuel - Every lamp that I have seen with a spark-ignitor (The porcelin and bent metal wire) uses parafin (oil based). They also seem to use flatwicks although I have one exception that is oil and round, and I have been told there have been flat wicks that burn naptha, but these alternatives seem rare. Most round wicks use Naptha (known to miners as Coalazine, zippo fuel or even panel wipe cleaner to us!). You will find that Naptha burns with a very unstable flame on flatwick lamps and as the fuel vessel does not contain any wadding it can be dangerous to use!
These oil lamps were more about light than testing, although of course they would have indicated bad air, just not to the sensitivity that the Eccles protector would have been used.
One thing that has always puzzled me though - the use of HV spark to light oil. All Naptha lamps used either low voltage filaments or flint strike to light the lamps. I have never seen a spark gap used to light naptha. Nearly ALL oil based lamps seem to use HV spark, which is at odds with oil having quite a high flash point. Only way I have managed to achieve lighting a lamp is by adding a few drops of naptha fuel to the wick to get things going... I would love to know if anyone can give us a clue as I have not yet met a single collector who knows anything about lighting them!
I can summise that they used a HV magneto to generate the spark though, as I have a picture of a miner using one somewhere.
Here is my MC40 that I lit the "traditional way". It looks like a standard protector but is in fact oil based and was a one-off design for Manchester Collieries, so did not use a striker and would have been lit in the lamp room.

 

[tomferry]

Just to clarify.
It is capable of being re-lit (by connecting to a battery) without opening the lamp.
However, this would only have been done in a designated safe place, by a trained and authorized man.
A normal miner was strictly forbidden from relighting his own lamp.

I didn’t no about the battery I must admit ! I no you had the lamp man , who had the special key originally who the miner had to go and find. I assume the clean air zone for lighting was on the downcast shaft air way so gasses could be present? Probably didn’t make this mandatory though for a long time !

 

[Martin Laverty]

Thomas & Williams are still in business, and even have a Facebook page where you can see they still make similar lamps, including for use by the navy in nuclear submarines. Some history here from Rhondda Cynon Taf library: http://webapps.rctcbc.gov.uk/heritagetrail/english/cynon/aberdare-lampworks.html

 

[Cantclimbtom]

AFAIK, it was a common practice for a miner to be given their lamp when they retired. So if it was recovered from a cottage in the 1950s it might have belonged to the previous occupier?

 

[Flotsam]

I used to use "miners" lamps to work on underground stuff for BT. It was fairly common for gas from the gas network to seep into telecoms ducting and chambers. It was a long time ago so don't know if it's use has been surpassed by electronic detectors. The lamp has the advantage of not only detecting low oxygen levels but gas as well, simple low tech.

 

[Tangent_tracker]

I didn’t no about the battery I must admit ! I no you had the lamp man , who had the special key originally who the miner had to go and find. I assume the clean air zone for lighting was on the downcast shaft air way so gasses could be present? Probably didn’t make this mandatory though for a long time !

No, this lamp was never relit by a battery. Eccles Protectors and many European lamps could be, but as I stated you have a spark gap in this lamp not a filament, which is how a battery-lit lamp would have been relit! This has to be high tension (voltage) spark.

 

[Tangent_tracker]

I used to use "miners" lamps to work on underground stuff for BT. It was fairly common for gas from the gas network to seep into telecoms ducting and chambers. It was a long time ago so don't know if it's use has been surpassed by electronic detectors. The lamp has the advantage of not only detecting low oxygen levels but gas as well, simple low tech.

Did you come across the Spiralamrs with red glass in the base?

 

[Flotsam]

Did you come across the Spiralamrs with red glass in the base?

No.

 

[RocksanaNa]

This lamp can be used in coal mines where there is a lot of methane...

 

[martinr]

Can anyone tell me anything more about this lamp?

Perhaps the manufacturer could?
http://www.ethomasandwilliamsltd.com/

 

[Flotsam]

I have an original BT lamp, hardly used, not by me. I bought it from a scrap dealer in London with some other BT stuff.

The lamp is manufactured by the Lamp and Lighting Co Ltd, Eccles, Manchester, it's a type 1A

 

[tomferry]

My collection of old lamps have used them all really am not sure what the left one is believe it’s for hooking on a fixed place at work as the handle houses a hole for a nail head . It has a self feed system no regulator or anything just drop the carbide in thecontainer , then this into the water so it floats and feeds it self ! When walking the jet shoots around very dodgy !

Middle have repaired that with a bike inner tube for a new seal and made the reflector out an old copper bed pan

.

The end is just a standard premier cap lamp type

 

[shotlighter]

I have an original BT lamp, hardly used, not by me. I bought it from a scrap dealer in London with some other BT stuff.

The lamp is manufactured by the Lamp and Lighting Co Ltd, Eccles, Manchester, it's a type 1A

I visited Protector Lamp & Lighting several times & had some good chats with the then owner. The 1A was what they termed a "utility lamp", rather than a mining lamp & was designed to run on paraffin. They also used to make a "garage lamp", also paraffin fuelled. As well as being used as an inspection lamp, it was hung in the engine bays of garaged cars in cold weather. Very handy in winter when anti-freeze was not widely available.

 

[mrodoc]

They're generally called Davy (miners' safety) lamps after the engineer/scientist Sir Humphrey Davy.

minerslamp.co.uk.Home

Miners Lamps are us! We have original miners safety lamps and parts for sale, buy a complete lamp , or purchase service items to restore your existing mining lamp

minerslamp.co.uk

Apropos of nothing there is a nice statue of him in the main street of Penzance. I remember going to a talk by Don Whillans in Penzance once and seeing they had given Humphrey a nice traffic cone hat.