Are you afraid of the dark?
Straining eyes, desperately peering
into the grainy, greyscale of shapes. Opening your eyelids wide
trying to let in the scarce rays of light from the moon to navigate,
slowly, cautiously. Charcoal coloured masses merging into unknown
hazes of slate grey. Is it a rock, a step? You feel the way with
your feet or hands, something moves … you cant make it out, your
heart beats faster...
Anyone who has been outside on a cloudy
night with the low moon light knows this scenario, but imagine a dark
so encompassing, so deep and empty, that you don't know whether you
are still alive or if it is just your consciousness floating around
in the infinite blackness. Not one pinpoint of light, not one shade
of grey. It surrounds and devours you. Just an empty void of nothing
and the thoughts inside you head. I have experienced this ominous
black hole only one time in my life, and it was deep down in the
belly of a coal mine.
I usually write about items that I come
across on my travels that I have to research or items that I find
interesting. On this occasion I had two beautiful miners or safety
lamps which I wanted to find some more information about. The same
lamps that the brave miners all over the world used not only to guide
them in this pit of blackness, but to protect them from gas
explosions. I currently live in South Wales, an area of tight knit
mining communities and a hive of mining activity during the 19th
and 20th centuries. During a period of 80 years, from
1850 to 1930, there were nearly 40 gas explosions here, in two
counties alone. This caused the tragic deaths of 3119 men and boys.
Lighting the way.
Many people associate the initial
invention of the miners safety lamp with Sir Humphrey Davy in 1815
but the fact is, that there were many lamp manufacturers, including
including George Stephenson and Dr. William Clanny, whos safety lamp
designs appeared almost simultaneously along side Davys. So which
lamps had I found and which period were they from?
Although I am an Archaeologist, this
period of modern Industrial history is not my forte so I had to look
for more specialist advice when identifying the lamps that were in my
possession. I sent an email off to Gary Chedgy of minerslamp.co.uk and
received a very prompt and helpful reply, informing me that I had a
bonneted lamp from the 1920's period and a much earlier lamp, a
Clanny, from around 1880. If you're looking for a lamp in particular
to purchase this site is the place to go.
The design of this early Clanny lamp
follows a similar design principle to the other lamps of the era, a
naked flame (sometimes behind glass as in this case), placed within a
metal gauze funnel surround. This provided a very small amount of
light, only 0.1 – 0.8 of a naked flame candle but most importantly
provided some warning of an explosive gas risk. If a dangerous mix
of methane and air was encountered down in the mine, (which would be
anything approaching 5% methane), the ignition from the naked flame
and subsequent explosion would be contained within the gauze mash and
prevented its spread to the galleries. Miners lamps based on this
principle are still used today in all UK mines to check for these
potentially deadly gases, commonly known as 'Firedamp'. They have
saved countless miners lives since their invention to this day and as
an interesting side note, modern versions of these lamps also carry
the Olympic flame.
The finished Clanny
I spent a long time indeed cleaning up
my Clanny lamp, about 6 hours in total! It is a beautiful thing,
especially considering the lifeline that it provided to so many
people in such appalling working conditions. It is a piece of living
history that saved many lives and for one man, his only guide, light
and protector, a mile under the earth.
If you are interested in purchasing the
lamp please get in touch. It is £290 plus shipping
More Information
For anyone who wants to learn more about mining history and experience a mine (with a few zip wires and a bit of abseiling thrown in) and the blackness I described at the beginning of this article, I recommend Go Below in North Wales. www.go-below.co.uk Below is an image of me down the actual mine with the benefit of a head torch.
There are
also The Big Pit and The Rhondda Heritage Park but I am yet to visit
these exhibitions so I cant vouch for them in any way (aside from the
good quality of the sandwiches at the Rhondda Heritage Park coffee
shop lol)
Information on mining lamps used in the
writing of this article www.mining-memorabilia.co.uk
If you are interested in collecting
lamps and meeting like minded people I recommend The Miners Lamp
Collectors Society www.thebigmeet.org
(They also have a facebook page)
