Welcome!  Collecting flame safety lamps can be very interesting as they played an essential part in the history of mine and miners safety.  I will give a very brief background/history and then hopefully point you in the right direction on buying your first flame safety lamp.  Flame safety lamps in modern american mines took the place of the live canary that was carried into coal mines to detect if methane ( a deadly and explosive naturally occuring gas) was present in a work area.  If the canary died the miners knew to take off and get out of the mine as fast as possible. Enter the flame safety lamp.  Inside the typical lamp was two inter-locking mesh screens big enough to allow air into the lamp, yet small enough to prevent the actual flame from igniting the methane.  Flame safety lamps served two purposes: One was if the flame in the lamp grew to a larger size then methane was present.  Two, if the flame shrank or even went out there was a lack of breathable oxygen in the air.  In modern day coal mines, miners use a high tech computerized  small black methane detector/O2 & CO2 monitor combination unit  that is only 4 or 5 inches in size and is clipped to a belt.  

           Most later lamps have a magnetic lock that prevented the lamp from being opened underground.  For some first time buyers this can be a mystery as to why the lamp will not open.  There are two small nipples on the rim below the glass.  Place an appropriate sized magnet on the two nipples and the lamp may be unscrewed. 

           The most prevelant lamps on the market today are the more modern safety lamps and they are Koehler and Wolf.  There are a multitude of earlier lamps that will sell in excess of $3 or 4 thousand dollars, but this guide is for the more common and affordable lamps that are avalible to the beginning collector. 

 Koehler lamps typically fall into one of three age groups that can be identified by the stampings on the top of the lamp.  The earliest will be stamped with the seal of the Bureau of Mines.  The second rendition is stamped "MESA" with the lastly produced lamps marked "MSHA".  This stamping reflect the transisition of authority over mines in the federal government over time. See picture of Koehler lamp below:

  Wolf lamps are typically more expensive, especially the "Baby Wolf" models (smaller in size).  See picture of wolf lamp below:

        There are also several accesories to help display your lamp.  Both of these can be found for sale here on eBay.  One is the fount wrench that was used on Koehler lamps to unscrew the fuel cap. (See below)

           Also you can purchase reproduction user guides for Koehler Lamps. (See Below)

       If you are a first time buyer looking into purchasing a safety lamp or flame safety lamp, there are several key things to look for.  One is newer reproductions.  These are easily identified by the brilliant shine they have and sometimes the inclusion of a box.  These lamps have no collecting value.  Most of these are found on eBay are for sale and manufactured  from/in Great Britian and look like the following lamp:

Next are some eBay sellers that want to sell you a vintage "mint" -"unfired" Koehler lamp.  They are not unfired when they are polished to a perfect shiny finish. Unfired lamps are N.O.S (new old stock) lamps that have never been used, not some lamp a guy in Delbarton West Virginia (mymimmmy) wants to polish up and pass off as being "unfired".

These lamps have been mechanically polished and are being sold as unfired mint and/or  never used by certain eBay sellers.  These lamps didn't look like this when they were new.  Beware of the sellers that sell these.  Stick to the original unpolished Koehler lamps.  There is no use in giving your money to someone that is lying to you from the outset.  In fact I used to have pictures of a certain ebay sellers' lamps (mymimmmy) that were guilty of  passing off polished used lamps as new unfired and he had ebay remove his pictures to cover his guilt.

I hope that this guide has helped you in purchasing your first safety lamp.  Please click the "yes" button below if this guide was helpful to let me know what you think. Thanks again.