Safety lamp could create a sufficient updraft that firedamp would not penetrate down the chimney. Further observations of the speed of flame fronts in fissures and passageways led him to design a lamp with fine tubes admitting the air. Sir Humphry Davy was asked to consider the problems of a safety lamp following the Felling explosion. Previous experimenters had used coal gas (chiefly carbon monoxide) incorrectly, believing it to be the same as firedamp. Davy however performed his experiments with samples of firedamp collected from pits. As an experimental chemist, he was familiar with flames not passing through gauze; his experiments enabled
Coal Miner (statue) was cast later, in 1966, and dedicated in 1967. Both statues were cast at the Spampinato Art Workshop foundry in Chicago. "The Coal Miner", which measures , is installed in the northwest corner of the Indiana Statehouse lawn and faces west. The figure wears overalls, boots, a belt, a long-sleeve shirt, and a miner's hat. He has a contrapposto stance with his proper left foot forward. He carries a miner's fire safety lamp, or "bug light", in his proper left hand, which is at his side. His proper right hand is raised, gripping the base of a miner's pick axe