"In consequence of this benevolent suggestion, a society was established at Bishop-Wearmouth, on the 1st of October 1813, by Sir Ralph Milbanke, afterwards Sir Ralph Noel, Dr. Gray, Dr. Pemberton, Mr. Robinson, Mr. Stephenson, and several other gentlemen. It was entitled, 'A Society for preventing Accidents in Coal-Mines;' and it immediately obtained the patronage of the Bishop of Durham, the Duke of Northumberland, and other noblemen and gentlemen. "A very few days before the first meeting, twenty-seven persons had been killed in a colliery in which Sir Ralph Milbanke had an interest, and he was called upon at the meeting to state the particulars of the accident. At that time there was such little expectation that any means could be devised to prevent the occurrence of these explosions, that the object of the gentlemen who convened the meeting, however humane in principle, was considered by the persons present as chimerical and visionary. The Society, however, amidst many difficulties and considerable discouragement, and a perpetual harass by the offer of impracticable schemes from every quarter, nevertheless persevered in their meetings, and succeeded in establishing a communication and correspondence with other Societies in different parts of the kingdom."[27] [27] It is unnecessary to enumerate the various schemes that have been proposed to prevent accidents from fire-damp. Some were unquestionably of value, and might, by their adoption, have diminished the frequency of explosions; others were visionary, or wholly impracticable. It was proposed, for instance, to fill the mine with an atmosphere of chlorine, which by entering into chemical union with the carburetted hydrogen, might disarm it of its power. Dr. Murray, in a paper published in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, suggests the use of a lamp that shall be supplied with air from the ground of the pit, by means of a long flexible tube, upon the false assumption that the fire-damp alone occupies the higher parts of the mine. Mr. W. Brandling also constructed a Safe-lamp, which, like that of Dr. Murray, was fed by air introduced through a long flexible tube reaching to the floor of the mine. In addition to which, he attached to the top of the lantern a pair of double bellows, by the aid of which he at the same time drew out the contaminated air from the interior of the lamp, and sucked in, through the flexible tube, a fresh portion to supply its place. To say nothing of the inefficacy and inconvenience of the long tube, the bellows possessed the additional objection of frequently puffing out the light.