Davy, Sir Humphry, “On the Fire-Damp of Coal Mines, containing an Account of an Invention for Lighting the Mines, and consuming the Fire-Damp, without danger to the Miner” In: Edinburgh Review, or Critical Journal for June 1826...September 1816, Vol 26 No. Li, Edinburgh, printed by the Heirs of D Williams,1816; iv, 510pp, 8.25x5.5”. Rebound in modern cloth. Very tidy, in FINE condition. $250
The Edinburgh Reivew was a sort of TLS and NYTBR for its day, with very long and penetrating articles reviewing books and reports on a very wide range of topics, as well as being one of the most popular journals in Great Britain for half a century.
“On the Fire-Damp of Coal Mines, containing an Account of an Invention for Lighting the Mines, and consuming the Fire-Damp, without danger to the Miner” was published February 1816, was a review of the important discovery reported by Davy just weeks before in the Philosophical Transactions. Davy (1778-1829, knighted in 1812) already the most famous chemist in Great Britain, in 1815 attacked the subject of safety lighting in mines—this in response to ongoing problems and disasters in mine lighting igniting “fire-damp”. (“Fire-damp” or “damps”, perhaps deriving from the German “dampf” for “vapor”, correlates to a number of explosive gases found especially in bituminous coal mines, and particularly in reference to methane.)
Following the catastrophic explosions at the Felling Colliery (May 25, 1812) in which 92 men and boys were killed there was a very general rush to concern all levels of society to find a solution to this dreadful problem.
The present (6pp) article appears in the Edinburgh immediately following Davy’s technical publication in the Phil Trans, for which, oddly enough, there is no reference, even though there are bits here and there in the ER that seem to me directly lifted from the PT paper. In any event this must be about the earliest ‘popular” appearance announcing Davy’s very significant find.
The ER article is a fine summary of Davy’s experimental work—much deeper than I expected. It ends with a great series of compliments to Davy:
“The result is as wonderful as it is important. An invisible and impalpable barrier made effectual against a force the most violent and irresistible in its operations—and a power that, in its tremendous effects, seemed to emulate the lightning and the earthquake—confined within a narrow space, and shut up in a net of the most slender texture—are facts which must excite a degree of wonder and astonishment, from which, neither ignorance nor wisdom can defend the beholder.”
“When to this we add the beneficial consequences, and the saving of the lives of men, and consider that the effects are to remain as long as coal continues to be dug from the bowels of the earth, it may fairly be said, that there is hardly, in the whole compass of Art or Science, a single invention, of which one would rather wish to be the author. It is little that the highest praise, and that even the voice of national gratitude, when most strongly expressed, can add to the happiness of one who is conscious of having done such a service to his fellow men. We hope, however, that some distinguished mark of such gratitude will not be wanting, to a person, who, by disarming one of the most powerful agents of destruction, has so well merited a Civic Crown. In this, indeed, the honour of the giver is more interested than that of the receiver: The latter may not admit
of much increase; but it nevertheless becomes those, who administer the affairs of a free People, to show themselves grateful for benefits conferred even on the humblesland most obscure of their fellow citizens.”
Here’s the reference for Davy in the Philosophical Transactions, “On the fire-damp of coal mines, and on methods of lighting the mines so as to prevent its explosion. Read November 9, 1815. (And) An account of an invention for giving light in explosive mixtures of fire-damp in coal mines, by consuming the fire-damp.”
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