The hydraulic press., 1861-02-02
THE FRICTION MATCH.


prompted with sufficient curiosity to inquire
who could have been the inventor of so SIM
pie and yet so useful a convenience. His
tory comes to our relief with this informa-
tion. To an English chemist named John
Walker is the honor due. He made the dis
covery IN 1929, which has since been greatly
improved upon by Professor Farrady, who
introduced tito popular favor, and others,
who have since added to its fame.
The Scientific American contains an arti
Gle in relation to the manufacture of friction
matches, from which we make the following
interesting extract:
''The best'wood for matches is clear white
pine, which possesses the softness required
for the manufacturing process, together with
the necessary stiffness and infammability
and the quantity of this consumed in their
manufacture is enormous. The wood is
first sawed into blocks Of uniform size, and
the length of two matches. By machines
OF ingenious construction, these are after
wards slit without loss of material into
splints. which being collected into bundles
and tied, dipped into the composition,
first one end and then the other. Another
string is then fastened round them after
which they are cut across between the two
strings by circular saw, which divides
them in the middle. Round matches are
formed by forcing the wood endwise through
holes in plates, which in the English works
are an inch'thick, with steel face and bell
metal back. In American establishments
tubes are employed whether for round or
square splints. The perforations are made
as near together as possible, only leaving
enough of the metal between to give the
necessary strength for cutting. The inyen-
lion was patented in England in 1872
''The acid fumes thrown off from the phos-
phorous in the various processes of making
matches, frequently cahse among the people
employed a terrible disease which attacks
the teeth and jaws and to such an alarming
extent did it prevail in Germany, that the
attention Of the Government was called to
1T The dippers are most liable to suffer in
this way, in consequence of standing for
hours over the heated slab upon which the
PHOSPHORUS is spread. As those persons
with decayed teeth are most susceptible of
the disease, they are carefully excluded from
some manufactures. No antidote has as yet
been discovered to this terrible disease. Its
away This generally occupies several years
with steady discharge Of matter outside
and into the mouth. The pain is not very
acute, but is constant, and the sufferer sell
dom survives the natural course of this dis
ease. Many operations have been performed,
chiefly by DR.. Mott, at the New York Hospi-
tal In some cases the entire jaw bone, and
in others only one half or one side of the
jaw has been removed BY this process the
disease is arrested, and the patients generally
recover. Thorough ventilation and careful
attention to cleanliness have been found the
most effectual preventives.
sit is a fact worthy of notice, that insig-
nlflcant as matches are, it is matter of i'm
portance, on account of the immense mum bers
made, that the manufactures should be
situated in districts where timber is cheap.
One mar ufacturer in Herkimer county, New
York, is said to have consumed within the
last eighteen years. 1925, 900 feet of lumber,
producing $500 000, 900 matches. Probably
the largest manufacturer in the United States
is Mr.. Charles Partridge, of New York His
works, for the sake of abundant supplies of
material, are in the wooded district Of Lewis
county, N. Y, near the Black River canal.
Beside the wood employed for the splints,
large quantities are also consumed for the
small cylindrical boxes in which the matches
are transported. Some Of the splints are
exported to the West Indies and South Ame-
RIGA, where the manufacture of matches has
been established within few years past
The matches themselves are largely exported
to the East indies, Australia, China, Mexico,
South America, the Pacific coast, etc. The
total amount manufactured in the United
States, is estimated at 900 gross of boxes
daily, containing 35,700,O00 matches, and
wersh So ,0OO."