Sir John Meurig Thomas discusses Humphry Davy's development of the miner's safety lamp

2,348 views · Published 31 March 2015 · 4:59 · Indexed 24 October 2026

Channel: The Royal Society · 2015 · Science & Technology

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2015 sees the 350th anniversary of the journal Philosophical Transactions, making it the world’s oldest scientific journal. As part of the celebrations to mark this anniversary, The Royal Society has published special issues of Philosophical Transactions A (physical sciences papers) and Philosophical Transactions B (life sciences papers), looking back at pioneering papers from the archive, with commentaries by leading scientists, historians and science writers. Here we talk to one of the authors, Sir John Meurig Thomas, about his discussion of Humphry Davy's 1816 paper "An account of an invention for giving light in explosive mixtures of fire-damp in coal mines".

For more information see http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/celebrating-350-years-philosophical-transactions-physical-sciences-papers
and http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/celebrating-350-years-philosophical-transactions-life-sciences-papers

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