The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-01-20
THE FEBEgARY MAGAZINES.
.,IHpI,INNnrr.aM


viii, 10y AntbOng Trolope; The Bird, n
poem, by Sara a.. Sf.th; The Penn Family,
by John jay Smith; Match Making" by j..
w. Watson; ''UEder False Colors, by Mrs
Lucy Hamilton Hooper; "rhe Two Flags" a
poem, by Edward Remand; High Life, or
Sketches in Swit2esland,' by Miss Caroline A.
Burgin; The Freedman and His Future,
part ii, by George Fitzhugh; Beyond the
Breakers, novel, concluded, by Hon.
Robert Dale Owen; ''Our Geographical
Sponsors, by w. w. Crane IAN Extraordi-
nary Episode, by r. Levin; ''rhe Report of
the Special Commissioner; Edwin NJ. Stan
ton, Secret History of Lincoln's Cabinet"
"0ur Monthly Gossip Literature of the
Day"
From the paper on matchmaking" we
make. these extracts--
We all-premising, of course, that every
body is as old as ourselves-wel remember
the time when Bridget was dependent for the
production Of fire by which TO perform house
hold duties on contrivance that was but one
remove from the savage plan OF rubbing two
bits Of wood together. We all remember the
tinder-box and it's accomplishments of flint
and stefan article now supposed to be so
much thing of the past that we should al
most as soon expect to see beau of the days
of Charlemagne promenading Broadway; and
yet we can assert that with our own eyes have
we seen within the year, in Central Virginia,
a spot where the tinder-box is not yet ex-
purged and where lucifers are looked on as a
diabolical invention.
Strictly speaking, we may say that the first
historical record of matches was intimately
in relation to the tinder-box and they were
used by Bridget, after having scraped her
knuekles with the flint and steel to deposit
q spark in the cotton-rag tinder, that she
might elucidate q flame. These matches
were simply shaving taken from slip of
pine wood, the action of the plane caus-
ing them to curl, and either end Dipped
in melted sulphur. In almost every country
domestic establishment these useful articles
were made at home, but in the city boys and
girls traversed the streets, and the prime
article could be bought at two or three
punches for penny, according to the state of
the market.
The advance from the tinder-box to the
first birth of the lucifer was quite equal to
McClellan's advance on the Peninsula. Every
chemist who undertook the matter based it
upon phosphorus. At first it came in the
shape of bit of the plain article rubbed on
sandpaper, the friction causing it to
ignite and the application of a sui
phur match producing the fame Burnt
fingers and the expense caused inventors
to look further, and the next step was
with phosphorus, and the whole enclosed in
small glass tube. When light was wanted
the end of the tube was broken off, and the
contact of the air with the wick ignited it.
Highly scientific, but expensive!
The next was the phosphorus bottle. A
small bit of phosphorus was put in bottle
and slightly burned with heated wire, the
bottle being quickly closed with q cork; the
result was phosphoric oxide, which, when
1,<~lA ,tnl -
bring into contact with sulphur match For
many years these bottles were supposed to be
the ultimatum of light-producing, until the
German chemists went into the matter.
The first attempt at a serious change was that
of one Honiberg, who thought he could sub
stitute calcined mixture of sugar, -four, and
alum, which had the quality of taking fire
when exposed to the air. But as people
would not be careful, Honibergs method
burnt out, and some things more scientific,
though not more practical, were tried. The
best of these was glass reservoir, holding a
small supply of hydrogen gas, column of
water supported by valve, an cleo
trophorus, by aid of which an cleo
trio spark was made to ignite a
small stream of hydrogen, which was
released from the reservoir by pressing the
finger upon valve lever on the top.
The next point was in pneumatics, and the
construction of hard metal syringe, at the
end of which was bit of tinder, or, as the
boys call it, punk. The quick pressing down
of the pistonc ondensed the air in the tube,
thereby producing sufficient heat to ignite the
punk, and by the application of q sulphur
match the requisite flame was obtained.
But all this would not do, and at last the
chemists hit upon the idea that mixture of
chlorate of potash, sugar and gum
would take fire if touched by sui
phuric acid. With that the bottle came
up again, and oblong paper boxes were made
containing a bunch of matches tipped with
the chlorate, and little bottles of the acid to
dip in. These boxes were safe, and as they
were prettily got up, the wood of the matches
being oftentimes perfumed, they held sway
for many years
But at last the public and the match-makers
came to the conclusion that cheapness must
be reached, and that it could be done in NO
other way than by discarding fancy boxes
bottles, and perfumes, and that the match
must be made to ignite by friction alone. TC
reach this, various inventions were made, anC
We stepped as it were at once into the lucifer-
or, as il was once called, the loco-foco-
match. In the production of this
essential little article almost every manu-
facturer undertakes to make a secre
of the compound with which
he tips his splints of wood, and asserts
that his method is different from that of an,
one else; but, while we are not anxious tC
disclose trade secrets or lay open to an en-
terprising public the method Of match-mak
ing, we win take the responsibility of assert
ing that very few of them depart far from
mixture of chlorate of potash, phosphorus
sulphuret of antimony, saltpetre and starch
though they may add what coloring matte
they please to give their manufacture
symmetry and beauty. This colorin,