Davy Refused to Patent His Safety Lamp
John Buddle, now entirely won over by Davy, was also concerned about a reward. By August there were 144 safety lamps ‘in daily use’ at Walls End, and they were rapidly spreading to all the other collieries in the North-East.91 Buddle urged Davy to take out a patent, pointing out that he could not only make his fortune but control the quality of the lamps issued to miners. Davy consistently refused, although he knew his colleague William Wollaston had made a fortune with a patent on processing platinum. Yet Davy was hugely proud of his achievement, and was never modest about it. On Banks’s recommendation he received the Rumford Medal from the Royal Society in 1817, and the following year was made a baronet by the Prince Regent. Davy designed his own coat of arms, showing the safety lamp encircled with a Latin motto which announced: ‘I Built the Light which brings Safety’.
Notes:
Despite the fact that it could have made him a fortune.
Folksonomies: science virtue charity greater good
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/sports/fishing/fly fishing (0.305688)
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Safety lamp (0.964916): dbpedia | freebase
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Humphry Davy (0.714817): dbpedia | freebase | yago
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George IV of the United Kingdom (0.624178): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc | yago
The Age of Wonder