Miners oil "flame lamp"
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- Опубликовано: 4 сен 2024
- Opening up a miners lamp to clean fill and maintain the lamp
This lamp is not fitted with the common safety lock. This is a steel pin held up keeping the lock in place. A strong magnet was in the "lamp cabin" only so the lamp could not be opened outside the lamp cabin.
The lamp was used for testing for gas. The size and colour of the flame would indicate the quantity of flammable gas in the area of the lamp
the lamp could be re lighted by the flint and wheel if needed
An interlocking pin would not allow the top to be unscrewed until l the oil reservoir was off the lamp.
The bottom is locked in place when underground so cannot be opened . ( 0-12 seconds ) The lock was opened by a strong electro magnet located in the lamp cabin on the surface for lamps dedicated to the mine use.. This lamp is fitted with a padlock hasp so they can be opened without the special magnet. Although these lamps are built to the same standard they are more memory and decorative than a working tool.
Brings back memories. The GLENNIE blink.
The other day I watched an old film from a coal mine in the early 1900s, showing miners lining up for a guy to "lock" their lamps before they went to work. The guy placed each lamp on a table and worked a lever that brought an arm down that appeared to press down on the top of each lamp. Then it was handed back to the miner, and the next miner handed over his lamp for locking. The film was black and white, with poor definition. What were they doing?
Most mines were classes as “flame lamp mines” that meant no naked flames or no un certified electrical equipment could be allowed in the mine. The lamps you saw was either verifying the lamp was locked by an magnet plunger being pulled down to allow it to be opened to be filled with fuel at the of a shift. OR this was a lighting station to light the lamps before going into the mine. There were two types of lamps the workers lamps that were used for lighting and working that these could not be relighted by the workers.. except at special locations… these were phased out when battery lamps came in. The second type were used by “deputies” for testing for gas. The flam was reduced and could go out when testing. These deputies lamps can be relighted by underground with the in built lighting system.
If you unscrew the oil reservoir whilst it still lit by fire...will it then still be lit and out of the glass?
Yes but it is locked in service so cannot be opened in the pit.
Be careful with those glass washers, they are the old asbestos type.
When it is lit and the bottom unscrewed while it is lit...will it light the methane gas...yes.
Yes IF the bottom was not locked before going into the pit BUT No as these were locked before going into the pit.. In latter years there was a steel pin and spring that needed a Strong magnet to pull it down to allow the lower part to unscrew. Not something that was available in the pit. As a side point the lamp cabin staff who used these magnets tended not to wear watches[ old mechanically spring driven ones] as it tended to magnetise them and cause them to fail!