Finding Things in the Darkness

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 19^th and 20^th 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)