Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1858-12-23

The INVENTOR OF FRICTION Matches DEAD
DR.. Abial A. Cooley, the inventor of friction
matches, died at Hartford, Conn, on the 18th
uIt aged 16 years This is the simple announce
ment which the papers bring us of the death
of an inventor. In these days when friction
matches are nearly as cheap as dirt, when eve
ry ragged urchin can afford to have q pocket
full to light the Stnmps of cigars which he find,
in the streets, it is difficult to imagine how peo
pie could ever have lived without matches -
But there is scarcely man over forty years
of age who cannot well remember the time
when matches were not when our ancestors
used to cover up the live Goals of the wood fire
with ashes and when they uncovered them in
the morning and nearly blew their brains out
irving to start flame when the old flint
and steel and finder were brought into requi-
SitiOn, aud how knuckles used to get hard
cracks in the Intellectual attempts to "strike a
light the knuckIcS often getting struck in
stead of the flint how lights used to be kept
burning all night how at length there came
a little Improvement in the shape of stick,
with one end smeared with sulphur, dipped in
the oil Of vitrol, which creates a flame and
then the mysterious phosphorouS bottle, and
the pieces of punk and pth that were carefully
preserved, and the burning glasses which the
amateur hunters used to invariably carry with
them in fine weather. thinking themselves won
dcrfuy lucky to be able to get light in the
course of from three to five minutes To those
who remember these things or at least heard
their parents tell Of them the man whoinvent-
cd friction matches appears in the light of a
bcncfactOr to the human race. How they paid
cheerfully their three or four shilIings for a
box of Matches a handful Of which could now
be bought for penny. Then to give man
q match was something Of a favor they were
worth giving and worth keeping and the man
who invented them was likely to be appreciat
ed. But now the very humanitarian character
of the invention seems to conducc 10 the obi.
vion of the inventor, for the match has become
public ndespensiblity, and has grown too com
mon for the people to wonder what was used
before they were invented, or how long arc
they were first known The inventors Of the
spinning jenny, cotton gin, railroad, steam
boat and telegraph, are immortalzed as the be
nefactOrS Of the race. But now we have Just
ceased one of the grandcSt Ovations our cOun.
try ever witnessed TO those who laid theAtlan-
tic telegraph cable, while its flaming record
oVerShad0wed the simple announcement of the
death of him to whom the masses, at prescat
at least, are quite as much indebted. Who
can tell whether, when the men we today hon
or have attained the years of thrce-quarters OF
a century, the prevalence Of the fruits Of their
energy and enterprise shall not have become 50
great as to make them cease to be a wonder
and their names unhcralded as that of the in
VcntOr of friction matches
If the grandeur of the fact that by the move
ment of a muscle we car transmit our thoughts
for thousands Of miles beyond the seas is ac-
companied by any feeling of gratitude towards
those whose geniuS has accomplished that
wonderful feat, that same feeling Of grateful
ness should extend to him who has in the mar
rowcst sphere Of domestic life, given us an in,
vcntion comparatively as great. There have
been many modern improvements in the manu-
featuring of matches, as there have also been
in the steam engine and the telegraph, but we
believe that to Mr. Cooley is due the credit OF
the original practical invention of friction
matches