The weekly herald. [volume] (Cleveland, Tenn.) 1876-1888, 1878-12-19
rrhnItIre ,Iode, Of strILlng rIrs.

In early ages, "when wild in woods
the noble savage ran" compliance with
the request, ''Wm you give mt a light,
please 2" involved, If the camp fires had
gone out, a spell Of unremitting hard
work, considerable manuel deXterity,
and an unstlnted application Of "elbow
grease" The primitive mode Of strik-
ne fire was by rubbing one piece OF
dry wood upon another until incandes-
canoe was induced. a tribe of South
American sayages improved upon the
dry wood friction process. They dis
covered that they could generate show
ers Of sparks by the sharp abrasive con-
tact Of Il certain kind Of pyrites upon
siliceOus or tiinty stones. The sparks
directed upon a quantity Of dry, readi-
ly-inflammable tibrous material OBJ
tanned a flame, with comparatively lit
tie trouble beyond procuring and pre-
pairing materials. In the matter OF
Striking a light" the human family
remained in a state of comparative bar
barism till a period almost within the
recollection of many Juniors Of ''thc oil
dest inhabitant." Our grandmother:
kept the kitchen fire alight all night by
placing a block of coal upon it, and
packing it with small coal or ashes, sc
as to allow it to smolder only till the
morning. The first triumph of zap
piled science" in Striking a light" lay
in the discovery of the combined capd-
bilitIes of burned linen, or finder, flint
and steel, and brimestOne-tipped wood
matches, or %'.spunks," a. they were
sometimes called. The finder was usu-
ally a domestic production, the finder
boxes and s%teels, or Grizzlies" were
made at Birmingham and Wolverhamp-
ton, England, where a considerable
business was done in these articles.
The flint was had from where it could
be picked up, and the manufacturers
and vendors of the matches were chief
ly poor old women. The steel was OF
the form of the letter U elongated and
reversed, the narrower stalk being the
handle; the broader, which had q SER
rated outer edge, was used for striking
the piece of flint, and producing the
sparks that ignited the finder, which In
turn lighted the brimstone-tipped
match. The lighted finder, when ii
had served its purpose, was extingu-
ished by a close-ftting inner that
was pressed down upon it. The flint
and steel were also used for lighting
match-paper-thick porous paper that
had been tipped in a solution OF saltpet-
err and afterward dried. The match
paper was held close to the piece OF
flint, with its edge at the point Of inn
pact with the steel. 1t ignited readily
and burned freely, but without flame
Amadou, or German finder, and
''touchwood," being woody tissue In a
certain stage of decay, were sometimes
used in the same way as match-paper.
The methods of initiating fire, as has
been seen, were, up 10 this point, by
rude mechanical e%xpedients. 1t is only
during the last half century that
science may be said to have been ap.
piled TO the manufacture of matches.
One of the earliest novelties was the
instantaneous lightning box" which
contained a bottle with sulphariG acid
and fibrous asbestos. The tipped match
was let into the bottle, and caught fire
in its contact with the acid. The revo-
luton in matchmaking, and the origin
of the match manufacture, as a large
and important industry, may be said tC
date from the introduction of phospho'
rus as an igniting agent applied in va
rious ways.