Edmund Davy Edmund Davy Edmund Davy FRS (1785 – 5 November 1857) was a professor of Chemistry at the Royal Cork Institution from 1813 and professor of chemistry at the Royal Dublin Society from 1826. He discovered acetylene, as it was later named by Marcellin Berthelot. He was also an original member of the Chemical Society, and a member of the Royal Irish Academy. Edmund Davy was a cousin of Humphry Davy, the famous chemist who invented the Davy lamp for the safety of miners. Edmund, the son of William Davy, was born in Penzance, Cornwall, and lived there throughout his teen
The Racecourse Colliery lamp' mines, i.e. the miners would have to make do with tallow candles set in a lump of clay. Mines were run on a day-to-day basis by the butty, this position can be compared to the modern-day contactor who would agree to sell coal to the mine owner at a fixed price. The butty would also hire and fire the men as required and at a pit like this, between six and 30 men could be employed. Every morning before the start of the shift the butty would go down with his safety lamp and check the workings for gases