Vigo County Historical Society

Historical Treasure Article

Historic Treasure of the Week - April 15, 1984
By Dorothy Frey
Vigo County Historical Society

Carbide lamps provided light for early miners

The treasure of the week from the Historical Museum of the Wabash Valley is a carbide lamp used by miners. The carbide lamp was one of several types used by miners to make working in the deep shaft mines possible from the late 1800s well into the 20th century.

The lamps burned a gas formed when water was mixed with carbide, a compound of carbon and other elements. The water was introduced into the lamp's cylinder. The gas was ignited at a jet in the center of a polished reflector. The flame was ignited with a flint and steel wheel placed near the jet.

Most of the carbide miners' lamps were constructed of brass, as is the one pictured here.

The lamps were mounted on the front of the miners' headgear, caps made to hold the lamps in proper position to meagerly illuminate the work area.

Size of the lamps varied, some were smaller than the one pictured, some were larger. The largest were attached to mules, the original motive power for coal cars in the mines before mechanization.

The other brass item pictured with the lamp is a refill container for carbide.

Several other types of miners' lamps are included in the collection at the Historical Museum of the Wabash Valley, including the so called safety lamps which were an improvement over the simple primitive lamps.

These crude methods of providing light point up the extreme difficulty of extracting coal in the early days of shaft mining.

The Historical Museum of the Wabash Valley, 1411 S. Sixth St., is open from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday through Friday.