The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1882-03-24
Striking a Light.


How /, Was Done Before the Days Of friction
Matches,
People who LIGHT their pipes, cigars or
lamps. or kindle thciMirrs by the ins,an-
tancpus ignition Of friction matches,
have, unless they are old people, very
litlc conception OF the labor and trbu-
lation attendant upon the Same process
fifty years ago, says the Pr0tidcHcc star.
Every wcl-regulated family, at that
time, was provided with a tin box Of
finder, produced BY the combustion of
rags and a Hint and steel and matches
which had been dipped into birthstone.
When fire was wanted the lint and steel
and finder We're produced, and the tin
der being ignited by sparks precipitatcd
from the steel by means of the tlint, q
match was touched ia the burning mass,
and. being lighted, was applied to some
prepared l1indlings, and fire thus pro-
duccd, the whole process occupying
front five to fifteen minutes, according
TO the skill or luck of the operator. This
was attended with so much labor, and
productive of thenseof somany naughty
words on the part Of the person opcrat-
ing that fires were generally kept all
night, This was dove there were few
stoves and hard coal had not come into
very general use thcn-hy covering the
huge and blazing backlog in the fire.
place with ashes, and in the morning
there was generally found in its place
bod Of live Goals, which, by the applca-
ton of fresh wood and with tie MD of
the then universal bellows, usually pro-
duced blazing fire in from fifteen min
utes TO half an hour. Sometimes, how
ever, from some cause, the backlog
would be wholly consumed, leaving
nothing but ~ bed OF ashes. In this
case, particularly if there was an abb
sence of dry kindling in the house, some
member of the family must take the
shovel, and oftentiinos, through snow,
knee deep, trudgc to the nearest neigh
bors, latter fire
And sometimes. indeed, the nearest
neighbours fire would be out, too, in
which case the walk would have to be
extended till the fire was procured. The
live Goals were borne home upon the
shovel, often carefully guarded with the
hand TO prevent blowing off, placed be-
tween two brands, the bellows set vigor-
ousy at work. and the fire thus set
blazing In Lighting q candle, live
coal was taken up with n pair Of tongs
and blown upon with the mouth until
blaze was produced. Pipes were lighted
by placing Il live coal on top of the to-
baeco, and cigars by holding the burn
ing coal to the end and pulling with all
ones might
The first Improvement on this in New
England was the substitution of bottle
of phosphorus, into which, the cork be-
ing removed, o birthstone match was
thrust, and being thus ignitod the bottle
was quickly closed in order to retain the
strength of the LIQUID. This was such an
emancipation from the thraldom of the
Undertook and flint and steel, and the
other Inconvenience Of the Old method,
that people rejoiced greatly, and be-
lieved the ne plus ultra in this direction
had been reached, and every well-rcgu-
lated family was provided with its bot
tie Of phosphorus, while the flint and
steel and Undertook were laid aside to
be used only in case of emergency. This
invention was known by the name OF
"oco-foco Matches
Directly, however there was another
invention, that left the phosphorus bot
tie us much in the shade, as the other
had the Clint and steel. This was tho
application of u preparation Of phos-
phorus and birthstone to the tips Of
matches, which only required 10 be
drawn between the folded leaves of u
piece of sandpaper to produce a lght,so
that the smoker had only to carry his
matches in one vest pocket and his
folded paper in the other to light his
pipe at any moment. These latter were
known rs 'Lucifer Matches" as par
taking, it is presumed, of the character
Of the scriptural "son Of the morning."
But the spirit Of invention was not sat
isied to stop here, and the result was,
the present world-used friction matches.
that serve all people, and the making Of
which, at the present time, consumes as