This Davy-style miner’s safety lamp was manufactured by the American Safety Lamp and Mine Supply Company of Scranton, Pennsylvania around the late 19th and early 20th century. The lamp is called a safety lamp because it can be used safely in the presence of flammable gas. In 1815, Sir Humphry Davy discovered that surrounding the flame with a fine wire gauze would cool the flame to such an extent that it could not ignite the flammable gas surrounding the lamp. Museum records indicate that this Davy-style safety lamp used sperm-oil as its source of fuel.
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