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COAli MINES Of
Dr. Murray’s Lamp.
On the same evening a very long and in-teresting paper was read from Dr. John Mur-ray, of Edinburgh, on the different gases of acoal mine, and on a lantern or lamp which hehad invented for the purpose of preventingtheir explosion. However well Dr. Murraymay be acquainted with the gases in theirsimple or compound state, he certainly didnot by this paper appear to understand themanner in which they were arranged in a col-liery, or at least the various manners in whichthey occur.
Plate VI. Figure 5, represents this lamp,which, like that of Mr. Brandling, was to sup-ply itself with air through an elastic tube.a the glass body fixed into a tin or copper studat b. The elastic tube is fixed to the lamp,which when lighted is screwed into the bodyat c ; d a kind of handle to carry the apparatus.The objections to this lamp are evidently com-bined in those against Mr. Brandling’s, withthis addition, that a slight explosion wouldbreak the glass, and that a blower strikingfrom the roof or floor of a mine might forcethe gas through the tube or down the chimney