William Reid Clanny FRSE (1776 – 10 January 1850) was an Irish physician and inventor of a safety lamp.
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Like a Clanny, and the Davy before it, it acts as an indicator of firedamp, burning more brightly in its presence. Later models had graduated shields by which the deputy could determine the concentration of firedamp from the heightening of the flame. Whilst the Clanny will continue to burn if laid on its side, potentially cracking the glass; the Mueseler will extinguish itself due to the stoppage of convection currents. The lamp is safe in currents up to 15 feet per second.
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The mines inspector recommended that only Stephenson lamps were used for illumination and Davys for testing. In particular "overmen ... whose lamps are mostly used to detect the presence gas, should avoid such [Clanny] lamps".
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The lamp devised and manufactured by Evan Thomas of Aberdare is similar to a shielded Clanny, but there is a brass cylinder outside the gauze above the glass. It resists draughts well but the flame is dull.
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The University of Sunderland has four halls of residence: Scotia Quay, Panns Bank, Clanny House, and The Forge U-Student Village. Clanny House is the largest halls of residence and is located on Hylton Road across the road from the Sunderland Royal Hospital. Scotia Quay and Panns Bank are based across the River Wear from St Peter's Campus, across the road from The Bonded Warehouse. The location of these halls used to be one of the many locations on the river that were used by the former ship building industry.
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Mueseler lamp (on the left) and a derivative of the Geordie The lamp is a modified Clanny designed by the Belgian Mathieu-Louis Mueseler. The flame is surrounded by a glass tube surmounted by a gauze capped cylinder. Air enters from the side above the glass and flows down to the flame before rising to exit at the top of the lamp. So far this is just a Clanny, but in the Mueseler a metal chimney supported on an internal gauze shelf conducts the combustion products to the top of the lamp.
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It was heavy and ungainly and required a man to pump it continuously. It was not a practical success and Clanny subsequently changed the basis of operation of later lamps in the light of the Davy and Stephenson lamps.
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Three types of lamp were in use: "Davy", "Clanny" and "Bainbridge". The certified manager (Jonathan Hall) only had experience of the Davy and Clanny but admitted that he was aware of safer and brighter lamps. The inquiry examined an expert witness (Mr John Higson, mining engineer, member of the Institute of Civil Engineers and a fellow of the Geological Society) who stated that the Davy was "by no means a safe lamp". He explained that in an explosive atmosphere the Davy would ignite it in a current of whereas the Mueseler was safe up to and the Marsant .
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A paper 'On the Means of procuring a Steady Light in Coal Mines without the Danger of Explosion' was read before the Royal Society on 20 May the following year. Early machines were quite cumbersome. But Clanny later succeeded in reducing the weight of the lamp to 34 ounces (964 grams). By 1816, when Clanny published Practical observations on safety lamps for coal mines, he had experimented in person with a safety lamp at the Mill Pit in Herrington near Sunderland, where there had been a serious explosive accident, with the loss of 24 lives, on 10 October 1812.
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Davy's invention was preceded by that of William Reid Clanny, an Irish doctor at Bishopwearmouth, who had read a paper to the Royal Society in May 1813. The more cumbersome Clanny safety lamp was successfully tested at Herrington Mill, and he won medals, from the Royal Society of Arts. Despite his lack of scientific knowledge, engine-wright George Stephenson devised a lamp in which the air entered via tiny holes, through which the flames of the lamp could not pass. A month before Davy presented his design to the Royal Society, Stephenson demonstrated his own lamp to two witnesses by taking it down Killingworth Colliery and holding it in front of a fissure from which firedamp was issuing.
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The Society for Preventing Accidents in Coal Mines first met on 1 October 1813, with Hodgson on the committee.Durham Mining Museum page, Society for Preventing Accidents In Coal Mines. For the next few years Hodgson was employed in making experiments and attending meetings of the Society. Another founder member was William Reid Clanny, a pioneer of the safety lamp.
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Miner's safety lamp designed by Mr William Yates c. 1878, published in Dr Ure's Dictionary supplement of 1879 The Yates lamp is a development of the Clanny. Air enters through the lower part of the gauze top and leaves through the upper part; there is no chimney. The lower glass part of the lamp has seen some development however.
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Clanny abandoned his pumps and candles and developed a safety lamp which combined features of both the Davy and Geordie. The oil lamp was surrounded by a glass chimney with no ventilation from below. Above the chimney is a gauze cylinder with a double top. Air enters from the side and spent gases exit from the top.
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William Reid Clanny introduced Peat to the elderly and Catholic, Jane Smith (c. 1751-1842), a kinswoman of Maria Fitzherbert. Jane had been the sole heiress to the County Durham estates of her father and lived at Herrington House, East Herrington, near Sunderland. She was wealthy but is also described as eccentric, a miser and a kleptomaniac.
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In the presence of firedamp the flame intensifies. The flame must be kept fairly high in normal use, a small flame permits the enclosed space to fill with firedamp/air mixture and the subsequent detonation may pass through the gauze. A larger flame will keep the upper part full of burnt gas. The Clanny gives more light than the Davy and can be carried more easily in a draught.
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Marsaut lamp (on the right) showing a triple gauze variant The Marsaut lamp is a Clanny with multiple gauzes. Two or three gauzes are fitted inside each other which improves the safety in a draught. Multiple gauzes will however interfere with the flow of air. The Marsaut was one of the first lamps to be fitted with a shield, in the illustration (right) the bonnet can be seen surrounding the gauzes.
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Poor copies and ill-advised "improvements" were known, but changing dimensions either reduced the illumination or the safety. The poor light compared to either the Geordie or Clanny eventually led to the Davy being regarded as not a lamp but a scientific instrument for detecting the presence of firedamp. Some pits continued to use candles for illumination, relying on the Davy to warn men when to extinguish them.
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In 1812 the Felling mine disaster and later in the year the explosion at Mill Pit in Herrington near Sunderland concentrated minds on the problems of underground lighting. In the same year Clanny completed his first lamp consisting of a candle in a glass surround. Below the glass was a trough containing water through which air was forced by a pair of bellows. Fumes bubbled out through another water chamber above.
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Lupton notes however it is superior in no other respect, particularly as a test instrument. The glass on a Clanny was secured by a large diameter brass ring which could be hard to tighten securely. If a splinter occurred at the end of a crack, or indeed any other unevenness, then the seal might be compromised. Such an incident occurred at Nicholson Pit in 1856 on a lamp being used by an overman to test for firedamp.
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The coroner commented that the fireman should spend more time examining the workings before the men went down the pit and that greater care should be taken examining the lamps. It was regretted that the gas was not reported by the prop-takers. Subsequently, the colliery owners bought 150 Masault lamps and 50 improved Clanny lamps which had bonnets fitted. The effect of the bonnet was to protect the gauze from draughts and reduce the risk of the flame passing through.
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Durham Mining Museum page, William Reid Clanny, M.D., F.R.S. One of the first moves by the Society (commonly called the "Sunderland Society") was agitation for the calling of a coroner's inquest in the cases of mining deaths, something mine owners had resisted; and Sir John Bayley raised the topic at the 1814 Newcastle Assizes. In November, John Buddle, a colliery manager, engineer and viewer, published a report on the ventilation of mines.Robert Nelson Boyd, Coal Mines Inspection: its history and results (1879), pp. 26–7; archive.org.
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Clanny won medals in 1816–17 for his invention from the Royal Society of Arts. His lamp and other improvements were, after some initial disputes, recognised for their true worth by his contemporaries, including northern coal owners who presented him with a purse of gold. with a silver salver at the Athenæum, Sunderland, on 3 February 1848. George Stephenson acknowledged a debt to Clanny's researches and Humphry Davy invented his version of a lamp very soon after a visit to Sunderland in August 1815.
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It was assumed that the sparks had insufficient energy to ignite firedamp until a series of explosions at Wallsend colliery in 1784; a further explosion in June 1785 which the operator of the mill (John Selkirk) survived showed that ignition was possible. The first safety lamp made by William Reid Clanny used a pair of bellows to pump air through water to a candle burning in a metal case with a glass window. Exhaust gases passed out through water. The lamp gave out only a weak light though it was intrinsically safe provided it was kept upright.
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Throughout his career Dunn demonstrated a profound concern for mine safety and was particularly interested in improvements to mine ventilation and flood prevention. He was a prolific author producing books, pamphlets, and practical papers on the coal trade and mining engineering, many covering safety topics. In particular he emphasised the need for adequate underground air-flow rate to neutralize gases, and promoted developments such as the use of barometers to monitor changes; cast- iron equipment; improved boiler safety valves and wire rope. He championed the better management of safety lamps and encouraged the work of those like William Reid Clanny who made improvements to lamps.
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The inspector was unable to decide which of two things then happened: either that the outrush of gas was sufficient to blow the flame through the gauze of one of their safety lamps, or that as the men started to move away from the fall they snatched up their lamps causing a sufficient air current to pass the flame. There had been indications of a large quantity of gas in the area; not only had it already been detected but also hissing and bubbling sounds had been heard. There had also been a heaving of the floor and fissures had been seen. The lamps in use were Clanny lamps which were known to pass the flame in a moderate current.
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Although the idea of the safety lamp had already been demonstrated by William Reid Clanny and by the then unknown (but later very famous) engineer George Stephenson, Davy's use of wire gauze to prevent the spread of flame was used by many other inventors in their later designs. George Stephenson's lamp was very popular in the north- east coalfields, and used the same principle of preventing the flame reaching the general atmosphere, but by different means. Unfortunately, although the new design of gauze lamp initially did seem to offer protection, it gave much less light, and quickly deteriorated in the wet conditions of most pits. Rusting of the gauze quickly made the lamp unsafe, and the number of deaths from firedamp explosions rose yet further.
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There had been many mining explosions caused by firedamp or methane often ignited by open flames of the lamps then used by miners. Davy conceived of using an iron gauze to enclose a lamp's flame, and so prevent the methane burning inside the lamp from passing out to the general atmosphere. Although the idea of the safety lamp had already been demonstrated by William Reid Clanny and by the then unknown (but later very famous) engineer George Stephenson, Davy's use of wire gauze to prevent the spread of flame was used by many other inventors in their later designs. There was some discussion as to whether Davy had discovered the principles behind his lamp without the help of the work of Smithson Tennant, but it was generally agreed that the work of both men had been independent.
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