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
Safety lamp However, by 1910 there were only 2055 electric lamps of all types in use - about 0.25% of all safety lamps. In 1911, an anonymous colliery owner, through the British government, offered a prize of £1000 () for the best lamp to specified requirements. There were 195 entries. It was won by a German engineer with the CEAG lamp, which was hand-held and delivered twice the illumination of oil lamps, with a battery life of 16 hours. Awards were made to 8 other lamps that met the judges' criteria. Clearly this stimulated development and over the next few years there