Davy lamp

American  

noun

1. a safety lamp formerly used by miners.

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Davy lamp British  

noun

1. See safety lamp

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Etymology

Origin of Davy lamp

First recorded in 1810–20; named after Sir H. Davy

Example Sentences

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 Murray, David Christie

He thought perhaps the butty would let him go down with his Davy lamp.

From Taking Tales Instructive and Entertaining Reading by Kingston, William Henry Giles

A height of 1,500 feet was read by the Davy lamp, and then we entered fog—warm, wetting fog, through which the balloon would make no progress in spite of a prodigal discharge of sand.

From The Dominion of the Air; the story of aerial navigation by Bacon, John Mackenzie

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