Karbidoder acetylene lamps (1900-1930), petrol lamps (1850-1960), bucket lamps (1945-1950)

Karbidoder acetylene lamps (1900-1930)
In the case of acetylene lamps, the acetylene is generated in the lamp itself. Acetylene is a gas that is made from the reaction of water with calcium carbide under heat generation. The acetylene lamp emitted a very bright light, but also had an open flame which easily came into contact with people's hands or items of clothing and soon disappeared from underground mining operations due to the risk of firedamp.

Petrol lamps (1850-1960)
In 1816, the English physicist Sir Humphry Davy observed that a gas flame did not penetrate through a close knit wire mesh held over it, even if there was combustible gases above the mesh. This finding led to the development of the petrol safety lamp. If the methane gas penetrated the lamp with the air, a blueish aureole, a blue "cone", was generated above the flame which the miner was able to use to assess the methane content of the weather. Building on Davy's invention, Carl Wolf from Zwickau had a lamp with petrol fire patented in 1884 which burnt very brightly and did not give off sooty smoke. This meant that the miners had a safer and sufficiently bright miner's lamp at their disposal.

Basket lamps (1945-1950)
Basket lamps were large and relatively heavy and were mainly used as crew lamps. They were the first electrical lamps. Despite their size, their brightness was very low and aside from the burden for the miner they were too dangerous for operations underground due to their low output which is why they disappeared from mining operations again after a few years.