Notes on Davey safety lamp. 19th-centry notes on the development of the miner's safety lamp by British chemist Humphry Davy (1778-1829) and his assistant Michael Faraday (1791-1867). Davy, a professor at the Royal Institution in London, UK, invented his safety lamp in 1815, with Faraday working as Davy's assistant from 1813. Faraday assisted Davy in preparing and publishing notes on the invention, with the paper to the Royal Society presented in November 1815. The lamp was designed to shield naked flames in lamps and prevent them igniting flammable gases in mines. Several other safety lamps were invented around the same time.