In 1914 the Mines Inspectorate said: that only 1 in 10 miners had electric Lamps (e.g. flame lamps 679,572: electric safety 75,707).

When I worked in the mines in 1950s we had the luxury of battery headlamps, and my recollection of Davy safety lamps, for travelling underground, was very restrictive indeed.

It is very enlightening to revive a dispute about the use of safety lamps (1890). At Coates Park Colliery, Derbyshire.

The men argued that the feeble light given by their primitive lamps, so impeded their work that their earnings were reduced, they demanded an increase of 4d (2 new pence) a ton compensation, they refused to comply with the managers proposal that they should bear half the cost of the lamps and complained that their eyesight was effected.

At Grassmoor pit, Derbyshire where the miners had previously provided their own candles, the owners bore the entire cost of the safety lamps but the men still claimed an increase of 3d (1.1/4 new pence) a ton.

Safety lamps became a major issue and at a demonstration held at Chesterfield the action of the employers in enforcing their use without additional payment was condemned as being 'arbitrary and unfair' in a resolution moved by a James Martin, he was supported by a Ben Richard and also by Joseph Windle who said, 'it was ridiculous to think that the men could earn as much with safety lamps as they could with naked lights.'

Some miners said that they would rather work for 2.1/2d a day less with a candle than work with a safety lamp. The controversy once begun continued in both aspects, medical and economics, for some thing like twenty years and led to court investigations into miners 'Nystagmus' and an important arbitration case in 1901.