The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1878-03-02
Stiente and Art.
How Matches are Made,

A match is a small thing. We seldom
pause to think, after it has performed its
mission, and we have carelessly thrown it
away, that it has history of its own, and
that, like some more pretentious things,
Its journey from the forest to the match
safe is full of changes.
The match of to-day has story far
more interesting than that of the old-fash-
ioned match. Much of the timber used
IN the manufacture comes from the i'm
mense tracts of forest in the Hudson Bay
Territory. 1t is foated down the water
courses to the lakes, through which it is
towed IN great log RATS. These RATS are
divided; some parts are pulled through the
canals, and some by other means are taken
TO market. When well through the sea-
soning process, which occupies from one
to two years, the pine is cut up into blocks
twice as long as a match, and about eight
inches wide by two inches thick. These
blocks are passed through machine which
cuts them into "splints, round or square,
of just the thickness of mach, but twice
its length. This machine is capable. as
We are told, of making about 1000 900
splints in day. This number seems i'm
mense when compared with the most that
could be made in the old way-by hand.
The splints are then taken to the 'isetting"
machine, and this rolls them into bundles
about eighteen inches in diameter, every
splint separated from its neighbor by little
spaces, SO that there may be no sticking
together after the clipping" In the
operation of Hsetting" a ribbon of coarse
stuff, about an inch and a half wide, and
an eighth of an inch thick, is rolled up.
the splints being laid across the ribbon be-
tween each two courses, leaving about
quarter of an inch between adjoining
splints FROM the 'setting" machine the
bundles go to the "dipping" room.
After the ends of the splints have been
pounded down to make them even, the
bundles are dipped-both ends-into the
molten sulphur and then into the phospho-
rus solution, which is spread over large
iron plate. Next they are hung in frame
to dry. When dried they are placed in
machine which, as it unrolls the ribbon.
cuts the stick in two across the middle.
thus making two complete matches of each
splint.
The match is made. The towering pine
which listened to the whisper of the south
wind and swayed in the cold northern blast.
has been so divided that we can take II
bit BY bit and lightly twirl it between two
fingers But what it has lost in size it has
gained in use. The little fame it carries.
and which looks so harmless, flashing into
brief existence, has a latent power more
terrible than the whirlWind which perhaps
sent the tall pine tree crashing to the
ground.
But the story is not yet closed. From
the machine which completed the matches
they are taken to the "boxers"
girls and women-who place them in little
boxes. The speed with which this is done
is surprising. With one hand they pick
up an empty case aud remove the cover,
while with the other they seize just a suff-
cient number of matches, and by pecu-
liar shutting motion arrange them evenly.
then-'tis donel
The little packages of sleeping fire are
taken to another room, where on each one
is placed stamp certifying the payment to
the Government of one cent revenue tax
Equipped with these passes the boxes are
placed in larger ones, and these again in
wooden cases, which arc to be shipped to
all parts of the country and over seas.
All this trouble over such little things
as matches Yet on these fre-tipped bits
OF wood millions of people depend for
warmth, cooked food and light. They
have become necessity, and the day of
flint, steel and tindcr seems almost as far
away in the past as are the bow and fire.
stick of the Indian. How apt to our sub.
ject is that almost wornout Latin phrase
"nluttum IN parUo, much in little
Much labor, much skill, and much useful
ness, all in little piece of wood scarcely
one-eighth of an inch through and about
two inches long l-,St. Nicholas for March.