200 years ago the Miners’ Safety lamp was deployed, having been invented in December 1815 by Humphry Davy working with Michael Faraday in the Royal Institution of Great Britain. From 1816, the use of the lamp both saved the lives of countless coalminers, and facilitated increased coal production vital to continuing industrialisation. To celebrate, the UK’s Royal Institution is publishing a unique bound volume of Davy and Faraday’s original correspondence and successive drafts of the paper that Davy published describing the lamp and its operation.
This limited edition book shows facsimiles of the original manuscripts of Humpry Davy’s papers collected by Michael Faraday and is one of the few primary sources from which the invention and innovation of the lamp can be tracked. Not only did the lamp’s invention have a significant impact on coal mining productivity, it is also a fascinating insight into the process of an invention, appealing to everyone with an interest in the history of science and invention.
Frank A.J.L.James MAE, Professor of the History of Science The Royal Institution of Great Britain and University College London, has edited the book and written an introduction and explanatory notes throughout.
Publishing by subscription is one of the oldest models of publishing and has become popular again with specialist books. Davy’s manuscripts have rarely been seen by anyone outside of members of the Ri and certain academics and this book makes them available for the first time to a much wider audience.
“This book is an important record of Davy’s involvement in the development of the miner’s flame safety lamp. Without it, coal production would have stagnated and the industrial revolution would have been stillborn. With the unexpected emergence of George Stephenson as a serious rival, Sir Humphry Davy became very secretive in the critical weeks before he announced his discovery of the wire gauze safety lamp. The drafts for his Royal Society papers are now the key contemporaneous documents from which an insight can be gained into the progress of Davy’s thinking and experiments.” David Rimmer
• The subscription offer closes on 31st July 2016. The book is priced at £95.00 and will be sent to subscribers in September 2016
• Every subscriber will also get a FREE copy of an interactive electronic copy as well, together with a FREE electronic copy of Professor James’ Newcomen Society Presidential Address, and an invitation to a special evening here at the Royal Institution. Each subscriber will have their name printed in the book.
• The book will be 200+ pages of the actual manuscripts (held in the archives of the Ri) reproduced with a transcription printed opposite. It will be printed by Blissetts (bookbinder to HM the Queen) and protected in its own slip-case. Each copy will be signed by Professor James.
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