[46] "A Description of the Safety-lamp, invented by George Stephenson, and now in use in the Killingworth Colliery." London, 1817. [47] The committee, in their report, after setting forth in a tabular form the dates at which Stephenson and Davy verified their theories by experiments, and brought out their respective safety-lamps, proceeded to say: "The friends of Mr. Stephenson, with this table before them, conceive their resolution to be fully borne out by the testimony of dates and facts, so far as they are known; and without the slightest idea or wish of detracting from the scientific fame, honor, or veracity of Sir Humphry Davy, they would repeat, and confine themselves to the simple assertion of their belief, that Mr. Stephenson was the first to construct a lamp upon the principle in question. And when the friends of Mr. Stephenson remember the humble and laborious station of life which he has occupied; when they consider the scanty means and opportunities which he has had for pursuing researches in practical science, and look to the improvements and discoveries which, notwithstanding so many disadvantages, he has been enabled to make by the judicious and unremitting exercise of the energy and acuteness of his natural understanding, they can not persuade themselves that they have said any thing more than any liberal and feeling mind would most readily admit." [48] The tankard bore the following inscription: "This piece of plate, purchased with a part of the sum of £1000, a subscription raised for the remuneration of Mr. George Stephenson for having discovered the fact that inflamed fire-damp will not pass through tubes and apertures of small dimensions, and having been _the first_ to apply that principle in the construction of a safety-lamp calculated for the preservation of human life in situations formerly of the greatest danger, was presented to him at a meeting of the subscribers, Charles John Brandling, Esq., in the chair, January 12th, 1818." [49] The accident above referred to was described in the "Barnsley Times," a copy of which, containing the account, Robert Stephenson forwarded to the author, with the observation that "it is evidently written by a practical miner, and is, I think, worthy of record in my father's Life." Mr. John Browne, C.E., Barnsley, in a communication which appeared in the "Times" of December 24th, 1860, observed: