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A gauze-covered oil lamp, marking a miner and used to detect gas.
Also known as: Davy lamp, Miners lamp, Pit lamp
The Davy lamp: an oil flame enclosed in wire gauze so it cannot ignite firedamp. On a monument it marks a miner, and it carries a second meaning in mining communities as the emblem of the industry itself — it appears on union banners as readily as on graves.
A miner's safety lamp — an oil flame enclosed in a cylinder of wire gauze — carved on monuments to mark a miner.
Contexts: History
The gauze conducts heat away so the flame cannot ignite methane outside the lamp, and the flame's behaviour indicates the presence of gas, so the object is both a light and an instrument.
Functions as an emblem of the mining industry beyond individual memorials, appearing on union banners, town crests and community monuments in coalfield districts.
Coalfield districts
A cylindrical lamp with a rounded base, a mesh-covered middle section and a curved carrying hook rising from a domed top.
The safety lamp commonly accompanies the pick and shovel on miners' monuments.