Davy lamp
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of Davy lamp
First recorded in 1810–20; named after Sir H. Davy
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
John DaviesKirkby in Cleveland, North Yorkshire • The container of the Olympic flame flown into the UK is actually a Davy lamp, invented by Sir Humphry Davy 200 years ago to prevent explosions in coalmines.
From The Guardian ● May 23, 2012
Men were much more careless in the handling of naked lights than they are now, and the beneficent gift of the Davy lamp was looked on with mistrust.
From Recollections With Photogravure Portrait of the Author and a number of Original Letters, of which one by George Meredith and another by Robert Louis Stevenson are reproduced in facsimile by David Christie Murray
He maintains, in opposition to Sir Humphry Davy, that the Davy lamp acts by its heat and rarefaction, and not from Sir H. Davy's theory, that flame is cooled by a wire-gauze covering.
From The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 12, No. 329, August 30, 1828 by Various
They had no Davy lamp with which to read their aneroid, and could only tell from the upward flight of fragments of paper that they were descending.
From The Dominion of the Air; the story of aerial navigation by John Mackenzie Bacon
Recently, M. Eugene Godard has obviated a portion of this difficulty by fitting a chimney, like that which is found of such incalculable service in the case of the Davy lamp.
From Wonderful Balloon Ascents by F. (Fulgence) Marion
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
