The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1871-07-22
Match SDlint ManuEacturing.-

co.'s DeBowens has just completed and put
in operation one of his match splint
machines, in the mill of Messrs. Hill &
Alexander, of this town. The number of
splints this machine will turn out in day,
or even in an hour, is somewhat astonish-
ing, and even incredible till it is seen in
operation. Mr.. DeBowens claims that his
machine will cut in ten hours TWENTY
MILLION EIGHT HUNDRED THOUSAND splints,
requiring only the services of one man to
attend it, and three horse power to drive
it. The machine is very simple, the main
feature about it being large wheel-the
one in use here being thirteen feet in diam
eter, and five feet on the breast. This
wheel must be set to run without varying
a hairs breadth from exactly true.
The lumber from which the splints are
made is ripped into thick planks, which
are cut up by circular saws into lengths of
two matches. The blocks the machine is
now operating upon are four inches in
length. These blocks are securely fastened
to the breast Of the wheel by machines for
that purpose, and when the wheel is thus
loaded it contains several hundred feet of
lumber, all of which is speedily split or
rather cut into match sticks. The princi-
pie of the machine is nothing more than
the common turning lathe. A rest is
placed across the breast of the machine, to
which are firmly fastened by screws, iron
or steel supports about one inch in thick
ness and two in width. To these supports
two cutters are attached, the ends of which
have holes, not unlike eyelet holes with
sharp edges, which, when brought up to
the blocks on the revolving wheel, cut each
a splint ont of each block On the wheel
There may be eight, sixteen or thirty-two
pairs of these little punch-like cutters.
The process by which the match srint is
cut is the same that the old time black
smiths used for making rivets or hand rake
manufacturers for making rake teeth
round, which consisted in driving the piece
of wood through steel tool, having hole
in it with sharp edges. The large revolving
wheel serves as the propelling power and
forces the edges of the blocks that are
securely fastened to its outer rim, through
the small steel eyelet-like hole in the end
of the tool. These cutting tools are moved
horizontally at right angles with wheel by
a screw which moves the row of cutters
exactly the thickness of a match stick from
right to left, at each revolution of the large
wheel, which makes thirty revolutions in a
minute. Each pair of cutters has sec
ton of blocks to pass through, six, eight
Or ten inches, as the case may be, which,
when performed, the tender, by the turn of
small Wheel brings them back to the
starting place, sets the cutters by the turn
of another small wheel, and they start
again across the breast of the wheel The
splints drop into spout or trough under
the cutters, in the bottom of which revolv-
ing strap, six inches in width, is moved
horizontally, and at right angles to the
large Wheel on pulleys six or seven feet
apart, which revolving strap or band, car
res and deposits the splints on another Sim
liar band, revolving at right angles to it,
in box from which they are lifted by tend
ers and deposited in frames. The splints,
when this carrying machine is working
properly, being all deposited in this trough
straight and evenly laid together When
the machine is working to its full capacity
it will make upwards of Il hundred thous-
and splints minute, which fall into the
carrying trough beneath in constant
shower.
Persons unacquainted with the magni-
tude of the match business would be likely
to conceive that this rapid production
would soon overstock the market; but it is
estimated that in Europe and the United
States, between four and five thousand
million matches are consumed daily. The
manufacture of m atches .or match sticks
commenced in 1882, and the increase in
the business is one of the marvels of this
marvellous century in mechanics, and the
invention of machinery.
The machines in use before Mr.. DeBowens
brought out his were not able to produce
the splints any cheaper than by hand
Mr.. DeBowens has patented his machine in
the United States, Ireland, Scotland, Aus
tria, Hungary, France, and Belgium, and
patents are either applied for or granted in
Prussia, Russia, Sweden and Denmark.
Although very simple the machine
requires such entire exactness in all its
parts, that the inventor labored many years
and expended large sum of money in per-
fecting it, but at last complete success
crowned his efforts, and its performance is
indeed a marvel, and so great is the demand
for match splints that his order will require
the working up of fifty thousand feet of
lumber a day to fill them. 1t is Mr..
DtBowens' intention, as soon as he gets
fairly under way here, to put in another
machine, larger than the preScnt ono