Cheyenne transporter. [volume] (Darlington, Indian Terr.) 1879-1886, 1886-01-12
History OF the Match.

lrron an Audress by President Piayfair, OIL
the British Association.
LET me take a single example of
how even a petty manufacture, i'm.
proved Ivy the teachings of science,
Affects the comforts and enlarges the
resources of mankind. When | was
q boy, the only way of obtaining
light was by the tinderbox, with its
quadruple materials, flint and steel,
burnt rags or tinder, and sulphur
match. Ii everything went well, il
the box could be found and the air was
dry, a light could be obtained in two
minutes. but very often the time occu.
pied was much longer, and the pro.
cess became great trial TO the seren-
ity OF temper. The consequence OF
this was that fire or burning lamp
was kept alight through the day. Old
Gerard. in his herbal, tells us how
certain fungi were used to carry fire
from one part of the country to the
other. The tinderbox long held its
position as n great discovery in the
arts. The pyrtdicuLd ignidria of the
Romans appears to have been much
the same implement, though little
ruder than the flint and steel which
Philip the Good put into the collar of
the golden Fleece in 1929 as the repre-
sentation Of high knowledge in the
progress of the arts. 1t continued to
prevail till 1888, when phosphorus
matches were introduced, though |
have been amused to find that there
are few venerable ancients in London
who still stick to the tnder-box, and
for whom few shops keep small
supply. Phosphorus was no new dis
cOvery, for it had been obtained by an
Arabian called Bechtel in the eighth
century. However, it was forgotten,
and was rediscovered by Brandt, who
made it out of very sinking materials,
in 1869. Other discoveries had, how
ever, to be made before it could be
used for lucifer matches. The science
of combustion was only developed on
the discovery of oxygen century later.
Time had to elapse before chemical
analysis showed the kind of bodies
which could be added to phosphorus
to make it ignite readily. So it was
not till 1888 that matches became a
partial success. Intolerable they then
were, dangerously inflammable, horri-
bly, poisonous to the makers, and
injurious to the lungs of the consum-
ers. 1t required another discovery
by Schrotter in 1S45 to change poi
sonous waxy into innocuous red brick
phosphorus in order that these defects
might be remedied, and to give us the
safety match of the present day. Now,
what have these successive discoveries
in science done for the nation in this
single manufacture, by an economy OF
time? If before 1888 we had made the
same demands for light that we dc
now, when we consume eight match es
per head of the population, the tinder'
box could have supplied the demand
under the most favorable conditions
by an expenditure of e-quarter OF
an hour. The lucifer match supplies
a light in fifteen seconds on each oc
casion, or in two minutes for the
whole day. Putting these differences
into year, the venerable ancient who
still sticks to his tnder-bOx would re
quire TO spend ninety hours yearly IL
the production of light, while the usel
of lucifer matches spends twelve
hours, so that the latter has an econ
omy of seventy-oight hours yearly, o.
about ten working days. Measured
by cost of production at Is. Cd. daily
the economy of time represented il
money to our population is E26, ,O00,'
900 annually. This is a curious IN
stance of the manner in which science
leads to economy of time and wealt
even in small manufacture.
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