Evan Thomas (died after 1881) was a Welsh ironmonger who became an inventor and manufacturer of safety lamps for miners.
7", improved on a lamp invented in 1816 by William Reid Clanny, and was successful in passing tests set in 1886 by the Royal Commission on Accidents in Mines; it was selected as one of the four recommended types of lamp.
[3] In 1879, Evan Thomas was reported to have gone into partnership with John Davies in the ironmongery he ran in Ferndale.
[6][1] After 1978, the firm continued to trade from an address in Robertstown Industrial Estate, Aberdare.
[7] Evan Thomas & Williams were believed to be the oldest surviving firm of safety lamp manufacturers in the world,[8] and continued to make replica lamps after the closure of the last mines in the South Wales Coalfield.