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II. Extracts from Papers published inthe Philosophical Transactions, and in theJournal of Science and the Arts, on the FireDamp, the Safety Lamp, and on Flame.

1. On the Fire Damp of Coal Mines, and on Me-thods of lighting the Mines, so as to prevent its Ex-plosion. Nov. 9, 1815.* ,

“ The fire damp is produced in smallquantities in coal mines, during the commonprocess of working.

The Rev. Mr. Hodgson informed me,that on pounding some common Newcastlecoal fresh from the mine in a cask fur-nished with a small aperture, the gas fromthe aperture was inflammable. And onbreaking some large lumps of coal underwater, I ascertained that they gave off in-flammable gas-f. Gas is likewise disen-

* From Phil. Trans.

f This is probably owing to the coal strata havingbeen formed under a pressure greater than that of the