Evan Thomas (died after 1881) was a Welsh ironmonger who became an inventor and manufacturer of safety lamps for miners. He was the original proprietor of the Cambrian Lamp Works, established in Aberdare in 1860.[1]
In 1867, Thomas patented an improvement to the design of the safety lamp that would prevent the glass in the lamp from becoming loose by using india rubber. In 1868, he obtained a patent for "an improvement in the construction of miners' safety lamps, in such a manner as to enable petroleum or other mineral oils to be consumed therein".[2] Thomas's best-selling lamp, the "no. 7", improved on a lamp invented in 1816 by William Reid Clanny, and was successful in passing tests set in 1886 by the Royal Commission on Accidents in Mines; it was selected as one of the four recommended types of lamp.[3]
In 1879, Evan Thomas was reported to have gone into partnership with John Davies in the ironmongery he ran in Ferndale.[4] This partnership was separate to the lamp business, and Thomas exhibited under his own name at the 1881 International Electric Exhibition at Crystal Palace.[5] At some stage, Thomas went into partnership with a Mr Williams, to create the company known as Evan Thomas & Williams.[6] [1]
After 1978, the firm continued to trade from an address in Robertstown Industrial Estate, Aberdare.[7] Evan Thomas & Williams were believed to be the oldest surviving firm of safety lamp manufacturers in the world,[8] and continued to make replica lamps after the closure of the last mines in the South Wales Coalfield.