“I never heard a word of George Stephenson and his lamps till six weeks after my principle of security had been published; and the general impression of the scientific men in London, which is confirmed by what I heard at Newcastle, is, that Stephenson had some loose idea floating in his mind, which he had unsuccessfully attempted to put in practice till after my labours were made known;--then, he made something like a safe lamp, except that it is not _safe_, for the apertures below are four times, and those above twenty times too large; but, even if Stephenson’s plans had not been posterior to my principles, still there is no analogy between his glass exploding machine, and my metallic tissue permeable to light and air, and impermeable to flame.” On the 25th of September, 1817, as Davy passed through Newcastle on his return from Scotland, the coal-owners who had subscribed to his testimonial invited him to a banquet and presented him with the plate, which, in accordance with his wishes, took the form of a dinner-service. “I wish,” he had said, “that even the plate from which I eat should awaken my remembrance of their liberality, and put me in mind of an event which marks one of the happiest periods of my life.” The chairman--his friend Mr. Lambton, afterwards the Earl of Durham, and who was with him under the care of Dr. Beddoes at Bristol--made the presentation in an impressive and felicitous speech, and Davy acknowledged it in terms worthy of himself and of the occasion. In a subsequent speech, in response to the toast of his health, he dilated upon the theme always uppermost in his mind, and to which he never neglected the opportunity to give utterance, namely, the benefit of abstract science to mankind. He had an admirable moral to which to point, and it was driven home with all his wonted skill and power. In what manner this plate, which was valued at about £2,500, was subsequently made subservient to the interests of science will be seen hereafter.