Safety lamp it. Air is drawn in and descends just inside the glass, passing up through the flame in the centre of the lamp. The outer casings of lamps have been made of brass or tinned steel. If a lamp bangs against a hard piece of rock a spark could be generated if iron or untinned steel were employed. Within months of Clanny's demonstration of his first lamp, two improved designs had been announced: one by George Stephenson, which later became the Geordie lamp, and the Davy lamp, invented by Sir Humphry Davy. Subsequently, Clanny incorporated aspects of both lamps and produced
Davy lamp the paper commented "The Lamp offers absolute security to the miner... With the excellent ventilation of the "Whitehaven Collieries" and the application of Sir HUMPHRY's valuable instrument, the accidents from the explosion of' (carburetted) 'hydrogene which have occurred (although comparatively few for such extensive works) will by this happy invention be avoided". Unfortunately, this prediction was not fulfilled: in the next thirty years, firedamp explosions in Whitehaven pits cost 137 lives. More generally, the Select Committee on Accidents in Mines reported in 1835 that the introduction of the Davy lamp had led to an increase in mine accidents; the lamp