An account of an invention for giving light in explosive mixtures of fire-damp in coal mines, by consuming the fire-damp

This contrivance consists in covering the flame of any lamp or can­dle with a wire sieve, the apertures of which may be as large as 1/20th of an inch square. When a cylinder of wire gauze, covered at top with the same gauze, is closely fitted to a lamp, and surrounds its flame so that there is no aperture but those of the gauze, if the little lantern so constructed be introduced into the most explosive mixtures of carburetted hydro­gen and air, the cylinder becomes filled with a bright flame at its in­terior surface, which continues to burn as long as the mixture remains explosive.