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The brass safety-lamp was invented by Sir Humphrey Davy in 1815, fuelled by oil or naptha, and the wick contained in a metal gauze cylinder. The gauze cools any flame passing through it, so that the temperature outside the lamp is lower thanrequired to ignite any surrounding flammable gas. When in an explosive atmosphere possible in a coal mine, the explosion when the flame contacts the gas is contained within the gauze.