[See DAMP sb.] A miner’s term for carburetted hydrogen or marsh-gas, which is given off by coal and is explosive when mixed in certain proportions with atmospheric air.
1677. Phil. Trans., XII. 895. The Fire-damp did by little and little begin to breed, and to appear in crevisses and slits of the Cole, where water had lain before the opening of the Cole with a small blewish flame working and moving continually.
1710. Brit. Apollo, III. No. 3. 2/2. Air is unnecessary to that sort of Fire, which is kindled from the Principles and in the Circumstances we speak of, as is evident from what Miners relate concerning Fire-damps.
1774. Pennant, Tour Scotl. in 1772, 49. The colliers, who dare not venture with a candle in spots where fire-damps are supposed to lurk, have invented a curious machine to serve the purpose of lights.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., I. 143/1. The air in coal mines is liable to be contaminated with two different gases, known by the miners as fire-damp and choke-damp, the former consisting of carburetted hydrogen, and the latter of carbonic acid.
attrib. 1867. W. W. Smyth, Coal & Coal-mining, 200. The ingenious ‘fire-damp indicator’ of Mr. Ansell.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 863/1. Fire-damp Alarm. One which indicates the presence of dangerous quantities of gas or fire-damp in coal workings.
