Show Firedamp Firedamp and afterdamp words brought Into terrible prominence promin-ence in many disasters in mines preserve pre-serve the older English sense of damp vapor and especially noxious nox-ious vapor Precisely where the word came from philology docs not know l but the earliest existence of its use quoted by Dr Murrays dictionary Is Caxtons lot80arter the dragon shal como a goot and thcr shal come out of his nostrel a domp that shal betoken hanger and grcte doth of peple Bacon is one ot the writers of his time who speak of tho damps of mines Damp gradually came to bo applied to visible vapors such as evening mists and tho transition to tho sense ot moisture Is obvious But In damping down a furnace one finds a relic of tho verb damp in the sense of suffocate |