Alan Charles Bagot
Alan Charles Bagot (1856-1885)
1885 Obituary [1]
ALAN CHARLES BAGOT, second son of Col. Charles Bagot, was born at Elford near Tamworth on lot June 1856, and died at Bournemouth on 22nd April 1885, in his twenty-ninth year, from consumption brought on by an accident in a Welsh mine in 1880 and by over-work and exposure in his profession.
He was educated at Eton and at Pembroke College, Cambridge ; and at both places was demonstrator in the chemical laboratories.
Afterwards he devoted himself to mining and electrical engineering, and especially to inventions and appliances for saving life in mines. He was engaged in experiments for the late Mr. John Taylor ; and was chief electrical engineer and partner in the firm of Messrs. Apps and Co., London. He was the inventor of a safety indicator for mines ; and the author of treatises on accidents in mines and on the principles of colliery ventilation.
During the last ten years he was much concerned with the application of electricity to coal mining, with safety-lamps, and with appliances for use in mints.
In 1876 he was engaged in experimenting on spontaneous combustion in coal, cotton, and wool; and invented an electric detector.
In 1877 he introduced a block system of electric signalling ; and in 1883 an automatic electric transmitter. During his connection with Messrs. Apps and Co. he brought out improvements in electrical apparatus, including a portable net of resistance coils for use on railways and for torpedo work.
In consequence of his accident and ill-health, he retired from the firm early in 1884.
He was one of the conservators of the river Trent, and honorary consulting engineer to that body ; and he published a series of papers on the prevention of floods. He was the inventor of an automatic electrical air-recorder for mines, and promoted the substitution of self-extinguishing safety-lamps in place of Davy and Clancy lamps, as well as increased care and efficiency in the lamp rooms of collieries. He was presented with two gold medals for saving life at the risk of his own ; and his thoughts were engrossed by the endeavour to prevent the lamentable loss of life in coal mines through carelessness or ignorance. His latest work, on the principles of civil engineering as applied to agriculture and estate management, was written during severe bodily suffering in the last months of his life.
He became a Graduate of the Institution in 1879, and a Member in 1882.
In 1879 (Proceedings, page 219) he contributed a paper on the construction and comparative merits of the safety-lamps generally in use ; and in 1883 (Proceedings, page 421) a paper on the application of electricity to the working of coal mines.
1885 Obituary [2]