Miners Lamp Society, Sb, A5, 31pp, the booklet is illustrated throughout. with Colour and Black and White Photos of the lamps, supplemented with diagrams and adverts

William Best was born 1846 in Pudsey Yorkshire, his family moved to Morley in 1852 he was educated to the age of 10 and began work as a pit boy , where he worked is not documented there were several mines in the area. The largest was Morley Main owned by William Ackroyd and Brothers. around 1880 William was employed as the Lampman. In this position he was responsible for all the maintenance and cleaning of the lamps and in 1892 he took out Patent No 5136 in the names of William Ackroyd and William Best for improvements in Machinery or Apparatus for cleaning Miners Safety Lamps..

During the 1880's clanny lamps used six pillars. Best was concerned about the reduction in light this caused and cut out 3 of the pillars which pleased miners . He began to manufacture lamps in Collieries and in 1892 incorporated an ignition system; he also produced his "Climax" Lamp Cleaning Machine .

During the early 1890's William Ackroys and William Best commenced in partnership under the name Ackroyd and Best