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The Geordie lamp was invented by George Stephenson
George Stephenson

George Stephenson was an England civil engineer and mechanical engineering who built the first public railway line in the world to use steam engine locomotives and is known as the "Father of Railways"....
 in 1815 as a solution to explosions due to firedamp
Firedamp

Firedamp is a flammable gas found in coal mining. It is actually the name given to a number of flammable gases, including methane. It is particularly commonly found in areas where the coal is Bituminous coal....
 in coal mines.

Although controversy arose between Stephenson's design and the Davy lamp
Davy lamp

The Davy lamp is a safety lamp containing a candle, devised in 1815 by Sir Humphry Davy. It was created for use in coal mines, allowing deep seams to be mined despite the presence of methane and other flammable gases, called firedamp or minedamp....
, (invented by Humphry Davy
Humphry Davy

Sir Humphry Davy, 1st Baronet Fellow of the Royal Society Royal Irish Academy was a Cornish chemist and inventor. He is probably best remembered today for his discoveries of several alkali metal and alkaline earth metals, as well as contributions to the discoveries of the elemental nature of chlorine and iodine....
 in the same year), Stephenson's original design worked on significantly different principles. If the only way air could get to the flame
Flame

A flame is the visible part of a fire. It is caused by a highly exothermic reaction taking place in a thin zone. If a fire is hot enough to ionize the gaseous components, it can become a Plasma ....
 was restricted (a baseplate pierced by a number of small-bore brass
Brass

Brass is any alloy of copper and zinc; the proportions of zinc and copper can be varied to create a range of brasses with varying properties. In comparison, bronze is principally an alloy of copper and tin....
 tubes was the usual way of doing this) and the lamp body above the flame lengthened, then the same amount of air could get to the flame, but would pass through the flow restriction at a velocity higher than the velocity of the flame in a mixture of firedamp
Firedamp

Firedamp is a flammable gas found in coal mining. It is actually the name given to a number of flammable gases, including methane. It is particularly commonly found in areas where the coal is Bituminous coal....
 (mostly methane
Methane

Methane is a chemical compound with the molecular formula . It is the simplest alkane, and the principal component of natural gas. Methane's bond angles are 109.5 degrees....
) and air.






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The Geordie lamp was invented by George Stephenson
George Stephenson

George Stephenson was an England civil engineer and mechanical engineering who built the first public railway line in the world to use steam engine locomotives and is known as the "Father of Railways"....
 in 1815 as a solution to explosions due to firedamp
Firedamp

Firedamp is a flammable gas found in coal mining. It is actually the name given to a number of flammable gases, including methane. It is particularly commonly found in areas where the coal is Bituminous coal....
 in coal mines.

Although controversy arose between Stephenson's design and the Davy lamp
Davy lamp

The Davy lamp is a safety lamp containing a candle, devised in 1815 by Sir Humphry Davy. It was created for use in coal mines, allowing deep seams to be mined despite the presence of methane and other flammable gases, called firedamp or minedamp....
, (invented by Humphry Davy
Humphry Davy

Sir Humphry Davy, 1st Baronet Fellow of the Royal Society Royal Irish Academy was a Cornish chemist and inventor. He is probably best remembered today for his discoveries of several alkali metal and alkaline earth metals, as well as contributions to the discoveries of the elemental nature of chlorine and iodine....
 in the same year), Stephenson's original design worked on significantly different principles. If the only way air could get to the flame
Flame

A flame is the visible part of a fire. It is caused by a highly exothermic reaction taking place in a thin zone. If a fire is hot enough to ionize the gaseous components, it can become a Plasma ....
 was restricted (a baseplate pierced by a number of small-bore brass
Brass

Brass is any alloy of copper and zinc; the proportions of zinc and copper can be varied to create a range of brasses with varying properties. In comparison, bronze is principally an alloy of copper and tin....
 tubes was the usual way of doing this) and the lamp body above the flame lengthened, then the same amount of air could get to the flame, but would pass through the flow restriction at a velocity higher than the velocity of the flame in a mixture of firedamp
Firedamp

Firedamp is a flammable gas found in coal mining. It is actually the name given to a number of flammable gases, including methane. It is particularly commonly found in areas where the coal is Bituminous coal....
 (mostly methane
Methane

Methane is a chemical compound with the molecular formula . It is the simplest alkane, and the principal component of natural gas. Methane's bond angles are 109.5 degrees....
) and air. This, then, prevented an explosive backblast
Explosion

An explosion is a sudden increase in volume and release of energy in an extreme manner, usually with the generation of high temperatures and the release of gases....
 that might light the surrounding air.

Stephenson's design used glass to surround the flame, which cut out less of the light than Davy's, where the gauze surrounded it. But this also posed the danger of breakage in the harsh conditions of mineworking, which problem was not resolved until the invention of safety glass. Stephenson tried several different designs in early years and later adopted Davy's gauze in preference to the tubes and it was this revised design that was used for most of the 19th century as the Geordie lamp.

The name is possibly the route by which 'Geordie
Geordie

Geordie is a List of regional nicknames for a person from the Tyneside region of England, or the name of the dialect of English language spoken by these people....
' became the familiar and affectionate epithet
Epithet

An epithet is a descriptive word or phrase accompanying or occurring in place of the name of a person or thing, which has become a fixed formula....
 for Tyneside
Tyneside

Tyneside is a conurbation in northern England, which is home to over 80% of the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear. It includes Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead, Hebburn, Jarrow, North Shields, and South Shields — all settlements on the banks of the River Tyne, England....
rs, deriving from a diminutive form of the inventor's first name, George.

See also

  • List of light sources
    List of light sources

    This is a list of sources of light, including both natural and artificial sources, and both processes and devices....