Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1882-06-30
Striking 4 Light.

People who light their pipes. cigar.
or lamps. or klnilc their fires bv thu in.
Simultaneous ignition Of friction matches
have, unless they AR old prpIh.. very
little conception ut the labor and trib.
uiaiipn attendant upon the same
process fifty wears aTo. Every we'll
I, Tulatrd family. n that TIM. wa- pro
N1drt with \ tin box of timber. produced
by the combustion Of rar-. and :, Hint
and steel, and matches which had brcl
dipped into birthstone. When fir,
was wanted the flint and steel and tin
der We're produced. and the finder be-
ing ignitcd by spark prcripitatrd from
the steel by means of the flint. match
WAS touched Ia the burning mass. and
being lighted. WAS applied Ia som" pre-
pared kindlnr. and 4 fire thus pro-
duced the whole process occup,inn
from five To fifteen minutes, according
TO the skill or luck of the operator.
Thi, WAS attended with 80 much labor
and productive of the Use of ~ ruaul
naughty words on the part OF the per
son operating. that fires were generally
kept all night. This WAS done -thrr,
We're few stoves. and hard coal had moi
come into very general Use thcn-h,
covering the huge and blazing back log
in the Fireplace with ashes. and in tn,
morning there was generally found il
its place bed of live Goals. which, by
the application OF fresh wood. and witt
the aid of the then universal bellows
usually produced Il blazing fire in from
fifteen minutes to half an hour, Some
times. however. from some cause. the
backlog would b. wholly consumed
leaving nothing but a bed of ashes. Ii
this case. particularly if there Was II
absence of dry kindling in the house
some member of the family must take
the shovel. and oftentmes through
snow knee-deep, trudge TO the ncareS
neighbor' :, after fire
And sometimes. indeed. the nearest
neighbours fire would be out. too. il
which case the walk would have to b,
extended till the fire was procured
The live Goals were borne home upon
the shovel. often carefully guarded will
the hand to prevent blowing off. PLACED
between two brands. the bellows So
vigorously at work, and the fire thu
get a-blazing. In lighting candle. F:
live coal was taken up with pair Q
tongS and blown upon with the moufl
until 4 blaze was produced. Pipes were
lighted by placing live coal on top o
the tobacco. and cigars by holding the
burning coal to the end and pulling
With all one : might.
The first Improvement on this in New
England was the substitution of a botil,
Of phosphorus, into which. the corl
being removed, a birthstone match wa
thrust. and being thus ignited the bottl,
was quickly closed in order to retain tn,
strength of the liquid. This was sucl
an emancipation from the thralldom o
the tinder-box and flint and steel. an,
the other Inconvenience of the ole
method. that people rcjoiced greatly
and believed the ne plus ultra in thi'
direction had been reached. and ever,
well-regula,cd family WAS provided
with its bottle of phosphorus, while thu
flint and steel and Undertook were lai,
aside to be used only in cases of cmer
gency. This invention was known b,
the name of ''loco-fOco matches"
Directly, however. there was another
invention, that left the phosphoru.
bottle as much in the shade as tn,
other had the flint and steel. This wa
the application of preparation O
PHOSPHORUS and birthstone to the tip
of matches. which only required to b,
drawn between the folded leaves of ;
piece of sand-paper to produce light
so that the smoker had only to carr,
his matches in one vest pocket and hi,
folded paper in the other to light hi,
pipe at any moment. These latter wert
known rs ''Lucifer Matches" as par
taking, it is presumed, of the characte
of the Scriptural ''son of the morning
But the spirit of invention was not salts
fed to stop here. and the result was
the present world-used friction matches
that serve all people, and the making O
which. at the present time, in all prob
ability consumes almost as much Woo
as there was burned by the whole Unit
ed States, for all the purposes of warm
ing and cooking. century ago.-Prori
0eNce star.