Who: John Haldane
What: The circular door of the cage should prevent the canary escaping. Once the canary showed signs of carbon monoxide poisoning the door would be closed and a valve opened, allowing oxygen from the tank in order to save the canary
The idea: It was asn need to determine the cause of an explosion at Tylorstown Colliery in 1896. Haldane concluded the explosion was caused by a build-up of carbon monoxide and set out to find a way of detecting the odourless gas before it could harm humans. The result was this cage and its captive canary.
How
According to Lewis Pollard,the curator of the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester, England, the circular door of the cage “would be kept open and had a grill to prevent the canary [from] escaping. Once the canary showed signs of carbon monoxide poisoning the door would be closed and a valve opened, allowing oxygen from the tank on top to be released and revive the canary. The miners would then be expected to evacuate the danger area.” This practice continued for almost 100 years, until canaries officially started to get replaced by technology in 1986.
Materials and technologies: metall , glass, oxygen cylinder
Similar projects: none
Media of the project:https://blog.scienceandindustrymuseum.org.uk/canary-resuscitator/
Auction|NFT: none
