41

2. An Account of a Method for giving Light inexplosive Mixtures of Fire-Damp in Coal Mines byconsuming the Fire-Damp,* Jan. 1816.

“ In this communication I shall describea light that will burn in any explosivemixture of fire-damp, and the light of whicharises from the combustion of the fire-dampitself.

“ The invention consists in covering orsurrounding a flame of a lamp or candle bya wire sieve ; the coarsest that I have triedwith perfect safety contained 625 aperturesin a square inch, and the wire was one-seventieth of an inch in thickness, thefinest 6,400 apertures in a square inch, and

the wire was one-two-hundred-and-fiftiethof an inch in diameter.

“ When a lighted lamp or candle screwedinto a ring soldered to a cylinder of wiregauze, having no apertures except those ofthe gauze, or safe apertures, is introducedinto the most explosive mixture of car-buretted hydrogen and air, the cylinderbecomes filled with a bright flame, and this

* From Phil. Trans.