Carbide or Acetylene lamp

This safety lamp was used by Mr J I C (Cecil) McConnel who was Assistant Managing Director of Sanquhar and Kirkconnel Collieries Ltd in the early 1920s.   James Irving McConnel of Eliock became the lessee of the Sanquhar coalfield in 1886 at the age of 24. He developed the local collieries extensively which were the largest privately worked coalfield in Scotland. In 1903 his business became a limited company, the Sanquhar and Kirkconnel Collieries Ltd. He retired in 1925 when the company was sold to William Baird and Co Ltd (Bairds and Dalmellington). He died in 1957 in his 90s.