Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-11-19
MATCHES.
Hosc They We're SIoscly EroIred- Ertent OF
Their Manufacture.

Ho,C They We're Sloscly Erolred- Ertent 4
Their Manufacture.
Few people who use half box of matche
day are disposed to think much on tn
subject of their origin, and rest conteu
with the fact that they exist. Fifty year
have not yet passed since the most element
airy match in its present form was invent
ed, and in Vienna the other day they cele
brated the 6ftieth anniversary of their in
vention by three Austrians, to whom. O
course, that honor is assigned. In Eng
land, in 1882, matches had not reaches
their present shape, but had only reached
the stage of s'lucifers." The modern gen
Grafton has lost sight of all these gradua
evolutions, and they are only known t.
those who have the misfortune to be sur
vivers of those benighted and unenlight
ened days. In the time of Fox and Burke
and up to the beginning of the present
century, the flint and the steel and the tin.
der stage had not been passed, though i.
is probable that DR.. johnson and others
were more skillful than we moderners are
at this intricate operation. About the be.
| ginning of the century, however, matters
began to improve, and long birthstone
matches came into use to supply the place
of the finder. These we're pieces of wood
| about six inches long, tipped with sulphur.
and caught fire easily from the spark of
| the flint. 1t would be difficult to obtain a
specimen of them nowadays. No museum
seems to interest itself in preserving these
little social curiosities; and it is only some
fifty years hence that they will be looked
upon as such, and sought after in some
technical exhibition of the match trade.
1t was not, however, until 1925 that matters
began to improve. when an elaborate ap-
paratus called the ''Eupyricn' came into
use. This consisted of an open bottle con-
tanning sulphuric acid, soaked in fibrous
asbestos, and the matches, which we're
about two inches long and sold at one shil-
ling box, were tipped with a chemical
combination, of which chlorate of potash
was the principal ingredient. On putting
the match into the bottle and rapidly with
drawing it fame was produced, but as
the acid was inconvenient and the matches
liable to be spoiled by damp. the Eupyrion.
being shown not to be fittest, did not sur
vive.
Many inventions, more Ingenious than
useful, were successfully tried; the spyro-
phorus," the pneumatic tinder-box and the
hydrogen lamp of Dobereimer; but it was
not till 1882 that the first sign of friction
match was evolved-and was called ''luci-
fer'' by the joking generation. Lucifers
were substantially the present match pulled
through piece of sand-paper. The re-
Ilembrance Of such continuance is calcu-
lated to make US think less than we do of
that dull time. But the country was wax
ing up, and the congreve, which is the
match of to-day, followed the reform BILL
Whether the congreve was called after the
rocket of that name is doubtful point.
There is story of its inventor which
shows, if true, the value of attention on
the part of schoolboys, and might be put
up in all board schools. The real inventor.
it is saba village chool-master-ex-
planned it to his boys at school, and one
more intelligent talked of it to his still
more intelligent parent, who was chemist,
and who turned it to material advantage.
Be that assit may, this was the same as the
match of to-day, and it has since under
gone few Improvements, except one chang
ing it from silent to noisy match. The
silent match. which is so affected by burg
lars, and is necessary accomplishment to
list slippers, consists in the omission of
chlorate of potash in the composition
which tips 1t and which is the cause of the
cracking noise which is liable to awake
the intended victim. The great invention
is the safety match, which was patented by
Bryant and May in 1856.
1t would require, perhaps, the intellect
of Babbage to wrestle with the statistics
of matches. That 100000 are burned
every day in Europe seems below the
mark. Some firms, such as Messrs. Dixon
at Manchester, turn out 100000 a day,
and many in London 2,OOO, 900 or g, OOO, 900.
The consumption of PHOSPHORUS for the
purpose in England and France shows that
about 250, 100000 are turned out in
these two countries alone. In America,
where as in France, there is tax on matches,
by which the grist is thus brought to the
mill, the stamps show an out-turn of about
10000 100000, so at present match making
is not the specially of America, though the
tax yields about 100000 year to the ,ev-
enue.