Davy, Sir Humphrey; On the Fire Damp of Coal Mines, and on Methods of Lighting the Mines so as to Prevent its Explosion. Read November 9, 1815 and An Account of an Invention for Giving Light in Explosive Mixtures of Fire Damp in Coal Mines, by Consuming the Fire Damp. Extract, Philosophical Transactions Royal Society of London, 1816. Quarto, pp. 24, 1 large folded engraved plate.

The work is complete and in a modern archival folder with marbled boards and title on cover. The binding is tight and clean, the text is very clean, off set of image to last page, minor dust soiling to very outer margin of plate. In very good condition.
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A British chemist and inventor; Sir Humphrey Davy (1778-1829) is best remembered for his discoveries of several alkali and alkaline earth elements, the discoveries of the elemental nature of chlorine and iodine and the invention of the Davy lamp, which allowed miners to safely enter gassy workings. Berzelius called Davy's 1806 Bakerian Lecture On Some Chemical Agencies of Electricity "one of the best memoirs which has ever enriched the theory of chemistry. The above offered work is Davy's first description of his safety lamp which became known as the Davy Lamp. An horrific mine explosion in England in 1813 prompted the formation of a society to study the nature of these frequent mine explosions and an appeal was made to the scientific community to present remedial measures. Their first report was released in 1815 and it prompted Davy to devise the safety lamp.