Whilst in Sunderland he was involved in dealing with the UK's first cholera epidemic that broke out in 1831. He is credited by some as the inventor of the miners' safety lamp (this lamp is of his ...

This was my grandfather's coal lamp. He used it for working down in the coal mines in Sunderland. It's made of metal and glass, as well as wax for the candle. He passed it onto my mum and then she ...