Here are some facts for this day. You are welcome to log your interesting, quirky or fun fact/s with your log.
On This Day - January 9th
World History
1816 - The Davy safety lamp is first utilised in a coal mine, initially terrifying the miners who fear an explosion.
British chemist and inventor Humphry Davy was born at Penzance in Cornwall on 17 December 1778. Davy is renowned for his invention of the miner's safety lamp. Mining explosions were frequently caused by firedamp or methane which was often ignited by the open flames of the lamps used by coal miners. Davy pioneered a method of using an iron gauze to enclose a lamp's flame, and so prevent the methane burning inside the lamp from passing out to the general atmosphere.
The Davy safety lamp was first used in an English coalmine on 9 January 1816. Reverend John Hodgson elected to take down a lamp, knowing it was safe, but not warning the coalminers of his intention. A miner, seeing the approaching light and knowing of the potential danger of explosions, yelled at him to put out the light, trembling with terror as the Reverend ignored the warning and came closer. It is unknown what the minister's motivation was, but he later admitted that he had subjected the miner to undue terror.
Whilst Davy's design had flaws of its own, the concept was taken up by other inventors who perfected it. The Davy safety lamp greatly reduced the number of mining accidents.