Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-11-07
how MATCHES WERE EVOLVED.

Few people who use half box o.
matches day are disposed to think much
on the subject of their origin, and res,
content with the fact that thew exist.
Fifty years have not yet passed since the
most elementary match in its present form
was invented, and in Vienna the other dav
they celebrated the tiftieth anniversary OF
their invention by three Austrians' To
whom, of course, that honor is assigned.
In England, in 1882, matches had not
reached their present shape, but had only
reached the stage of "lucifers." The
modern generation has lost sight of all
| these gradual evolutions, and they are only
known to those who have the misfortune
to be survivors of those benighted and un.
enlightened days. In the time of Fox and
| Burke, and up to the beginning of the
present century, the fiiut and steel and
finder stage had not been passed, though
| it is probable that DR.. johnson and others
were more skillful than we moderns 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 were pieces Of wood about six inches
long, tipped with sulphur, and caught fire
easily from the spark of the flint It would
be difficult to obtain a specimen of them
nowadays. No museum seems to interest
itself in preserving these little social curl
csities and it is only some fifty wears
hence that they will be looked upon as
| such, and sought after in some technical
exhibition of the match trade. 1t was not
however, till 1925 that matters began To
improve, when an elaborate apparatus
called the ''Eupyrion came into use.
This consisted of an open bottle containing
sulphuric acid, soaked in fibrous asbestos,
and the matches, which were about two
inches long and sold at one shilling box.
were tipped with chemical combination.
OF which chlorate of potash was the prin-
cipal ingredient. On putting the match
into the bottle and rapidly withdrawing it
flame was produced, but as the acid was
inconvenient and the matches liable to be
spoiled by damp, the Eupyrion being shown
not to be the fittest did not survive.
Many inventions more ingenious than
useful were successfully tried the "phy-
rophorus, the pneumatic finder. box, and
the hydrogen lamp of Dobereimer but it
was not until 1892 that the first sign Of
friction match was evolved-and was called
"a lucifer " by the joking generation. Luz
offers We're substantially the present match
pulled through a piece of sand.p paper. The
remembrance of such continuance is cal
culated to make us think less than we do
of that dull time. But the country was
waking up, and the congreve, which is
the match of to-day, soon followed the re-
form bill. Whether the congreve was
called after the rocket of that name is
doubtful point. There is story of its in
ventor 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 said-a village school.
master-explained it to his boys at school,
and one more intelligent talked of it to his
still more intelligent parent, who was a
chemist, and who turned it to material
advantage. Be that as it may, this
was the same as the match of to-day;
and 1t has since undergone few improve
ments, except one changing it from silent
to a noisy match. The silent match, which
Is SO affected by burglars, and is a neces.
sary accompaniment to list slippers, con-
sists IN the omission of chlorate of potash
in the comp osition which tips it, and which
is the cause of the cracking noise which is
liable to awake the intended victim. The
last great Invention was the safety match.
1t would require, perhaps, the intellect of
a cabbage to wrestle with the statistics of
matches. That 100000 are burned
every day in Europe seem below the mark.
Some firms turn out 5000, 600 day, and
many in London 100000 or 5000, 600.
The consumption of phosphorus for the
purpose IN England an1uE-s- shsws that
about 20, 0O9 1are turned
out in these one. In Amer.
lea, where, as M france, there is tax on
matches. by which grist is thus brought to
the mill the stamps show an outturn of
about 40, 900, 600 900, so at present match
making is not the specielty of America,
though the tax yields about f70O, 900 a