Exploring our collection: the canary resuscitator (2018)

Summary

Have you ever wondered what our curators' favourite collection items are? Here, assistant curator Lewis takes us through his rather surprising pick.I’ve been asked many times what my favourite object is in our collection. You’d think that would be quite difficult when there are over 20,000 objects here at the Museum, and millions in the Science Museum Group’s overall collections, but it’s actually really easy. My favourite object, without a doubt, is this device that was used to resuscitate canaries in coal mines, and I’m going to tell you why. Cage for reviving canary, with oxygen cylinder, made by Siebe Gorman & Co. Ltd, London. View object in our online collection. First, a little background history. Canaries were used in mines from the late 1800s to detect gases, such as carbon monoxide. The gas is deadly to humans and canaries alike in large quantities, but canaries are much more sensitive to small amounts of the gas, and so will react more quickly than humans. This was discovered by John Haldane, who was asked to help determine the cause of an explosion at Tylorstown Colliery in 1896. He 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. The circular door would be kept open and had a grill to 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 on top to be released and revive the canary. The miners would then be expected to evacuate the danger area. So why is this my favourite object in our collections? Firstly, while I don’t advocate the use of animals in testing dangerous conditions, I am pleased that Haldane spared a thought for the canaries themselves and worked to make their job as non-lethal as possible. My impression from hearing about canaries in coal mines was that they were expected to die to ...