John Buddle mining engineer. He succeeded his father as manager at Wallsend Colliery in 1806, though his work was not limited to just the local colliery. Buddle was involved with the introduction of the miners safety lamp invented by Humphry Davy being involved in the earliest discussions with Davy in August 1815 and providing "fire-damp" samples for experiments in Davy's London Laboratory. The moment when Buddle tested the new Davy safety lamp for the first time, for real, in Northeast England, is recorded by him in a report to the Select Committee on Accidents in Mines on 4 September 1835 "I first
Safety lamp of the safety lamp. The miner was expected to return to the shaft to perform relighting, a round trip of up to a few miles. For men on piece work, this meant a loss of income (perhaps 10% of their day's pay) and so was unpopular. From the mid-century onwards, and particularly after the 1872 act, lamps had to have a lock mechanism which prevented the miner opening the lamp. Two schemes existed; either a special tool was required which kept at the pit head or else opening the lamp extinguished the flame. The latter mechanism can be seen in