It is not easy to say who invented the safety lamp. Davy claimed that he had invented it, and so did Stephenson.
Davy and Stephenson lived and worked in different parts of the country: Davy lived and worked in London, and Stephenson lived and worked in Killingworth.
Davy and Stephenson both invented safety lamps that looked similar. When they were inventing their safety lamps, they did not discuss their work with each other.
We can say that Davy and Stephenson both invented similar safety lamps at the same time. They did this independently of one another. Stephenson was the first to take his safety lamp into a mine to test it, but it did not work very well. Davy, who was a scientist, was the first to understand why his safety lamp worked. Some miners preferred Davy’s safety lamp; other miners preferred Stephenson’s safety lamp.
The letters written by Davy and Stephenson are important documents. They contain lots of information about the invention of Davy’s and Stephenson’s safety lamps. They tell us lots about what the two men thought of each other. Although Davy and Stephenson argued over who had invented the safety lamp, they were both trying to achieve the same aim: to prevent terrible explosions in mines such as the one that caused the Felling Colliery Disaster in 1812. Both Davy and Stephenson are remembered today for their important work on their safety lamps.
