It is an oil-burning miner's safety lamp invented by Sir Humphry Davy in 1816 when investigating firedamp (methane) explosions in coal mines.

The lamp has a metal gauze surrounding the flame, which cools the hot gases by conduction and prevents ignition of gas outside the gauze. If firedamp is present it burns within the gauze cage and lamps of this type are still used for testing for gas.