Hi Guys,

I know it's probably very difficult but does anyone have any idea what the lamp held by John Lambert in the image below may be?

He worked at the Stanley Pit, just up the road from us and the image is at the time of the huge explosion there in 1909. As it's the North East - could it be a Patterson Lamp I wonder.

Someone on another forum guessed at an Ellis Lamp?

On the website of the Durham Mining Museum in the section relating to West Stanley Pit there is the full text of the Mines Inspector's Report into the 1909 explosinn. In the section of the report that deals with underground lighting it says :

" .... The only other lights in use were safety lamps. Of these there were 637, of which 526 were of the Marsaut and 111 of the Donald type.

The oil used in the lamps was :–

In 175 Marsaut ... Colza
111 Donald ... Colza
351 Marsaut ... Petroleum (Homelight).

Only those engaged on the haulage roads – putters, drivers, and others – used the Donald lamps. The coal hewers and stonemen were provided with Marsaut lamps with double gauzes. "

Unfortunately this does not really answer the question as, other than for the Donald lamps, the maker of the remaining lamps is not given.

Alan Vickers.

Looks like a Patterson B7 with the vessel shape. The front bar appears to be missing and it looks to have a reflector on the back of it. Could be an ex surveyors lamp also.
Were Patterson B7's made as early as 1909?

There was a schedule of lamp makers and lamps published in the NMMA Newsletter N0 25, New Year 2002 and in there it quotes the Patterson B7 lamp as being made from 'c1920'. The only other note that I have on this lamp is that there was/is a lamp of this type in the display of miner's lamps in Sunderland Museum.

Alan Vickers.

Some information on 'Donald' lamps can be found in the catalogue of lamps formerly in the Mining Institute at Newcastle.

Donald was for many years chief lamp maker for Mills and Sons, Newcastle. In addition Donald lamps were made by Laidler of Durham and Patterson of Newcastle and Gateshead.

The information can be found on the website at www.mininginstitute.org .uk Click on 'Papers' and then scoll down to 'Other items.....' and click on 'A catalogue of lamps....' There you will find an index with a link to Donald.

The Patterson 'Donald' only has three standards.

Alan Vickers.

Hi Alan,
The lamp is not a Donald in my opinion, it does not have the full lenghth inner gauze, you can see the burner. Also I have not seen a Donald with that size/shape of bonnet. So if we go to your list of lamps in use, it must be a mersault lamp with the double top gauzes inside the bonnet. And according to your report these were issued to the hewers, that this impressive chap appears to be. So what maker (probably a Newcastle maker) made mersault lamps around 1909. The shape of the top of the bonnet is distinctive, it is very like the turned down shape of the Sheffield Wolfs, but its not one of those. The shape of the vessel is very Patterson. I don't think it is an Ellis and I think that opinion is based on the fact that the burner looks like an Ellis burner, but I think that is caused by light reflection rather than being actual.
Back to you Alan to see what the records say on mersults produced round that time.
Charles

Charles - if you go to the mining institute website that I have mentioned and click on 'Marsaut' in the index you will be taken to quite a long list of lamps.

Marsaut lamps were made by Laidler of Durham. Mills of Newcastle, Davis Derby, Patterson of Newcastle and Ackroyd & Best and probably by a number of other makers who's lamps were not then in the institute collection.

In regard to Patterson, types A3, B1, B7 and D2 are listed and in respect of type B7 that you quoted in an earlier posting it says :

"
No. 69.
MARSAUT LAMP.
Presented by Patterson and Company.
Made by Patterson, Newcastle upon Tyne.
(Type B7).
CONSTRUCTION.
Gauzes. Two 28 mesh iron.
Burner. ? ins flat wick with porcelain mounting, to give better directional air supply to the flame and better candle power.
Ignition. Electrical.
Lock. Magnetic. "

My own notes on Patterson and Company do not help other than that from 1888 they stated in one of their adverts that they had started to make lamps to Routledge & Johnson patenta but there was no mention of Marsaut lamps.

If I was to make a guess on the lamp in the photo I would say Patterson.

What a pity that the inspector did not quote in his report the makes of the lamps that were in use at West Stanley at the time of the explosion.

Alan Vickers.

Hi Guys,

I fould this on the Beamish site - it's a broken lamp from the disaster. not sure if it is a Hewers lamp though?

http://collections.beamish.org.uk/search-detail?item=IRN8374&query=lamp&searchType=everything&hiQuality=0&withPhotos=0&filterQuery=

Hope it helps in the identity.

Thanks again for all the information.

The lamp on the site posted by onotoman is a Patterson Donald. It has the typical short squat bonnet and the clanny style appearance around the glass cage and burner. The gauze is the donald style gauze. This lamp is quite different from the other in all it's shapes and aspects. But a nice piece of information.

Hi Charles,
Unfortunately I can't find any job titles for those lost in the disaster, so not sure whether Allan Miller (possible owner of the damaged lamp) was a Hewer or Stoneman, or another trade, but your identification would seem to suggest that he wasn't as Hewers and Stonemen were said in the enquiry to have Marsaut lamps.

The son, Henry was only 15 so unlikely to be a Hewer or Stoneman and again a Donald Type Lamp would support this?

So, this damaged lamp is different to the one held by John Lambert (the hewer in the photo) at the top of this thread and therefore no help in answering my own question as to identifying Mr Lambert's lamp :-(

As a result of doing some more research into the lamps used at West Stanley at the time of the 1909 explosion I have discovered that at least one Howat's Patent Deflector Lamp (referred to in a previous thread a few weeks ago) was in use in the Brockwell seam but this was not mentioned at the inquest following the 1909 disaster. The lamp was subsequently presented to the Mining Institute at Newcastle.

In 1933 the bodies of two more of the victims were recovered and the use of the Howat's lamp was then referred to at the subsequent inquest.

On the basis that the report into the explosion stated that two different fuels were used for the Marsaut lamps, it seems to be possible that these lamps may have been of more than one type or make.

Alan Vickers.

The Howatts Deflector Lamp patent was used by a number of manufacturers, this involved a deflector plate round the bottom third inside of the bonnet circumference that deflected the fresh air, that was drawn in through holes in the top glass ring, down the outer area inside glass to the burner and the burnt gas rose up the centre and over the deflector plate to exit at the top of the bonnet. These nearly all look in appearance like the popular RJCM bonnet that slides off. So that is not the lamp in the picture either!! It is definately the mersault lamps you refer to and probably Patterson.