The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1890-01-11
THE FIRST MATCH.
Some of the Cumbrous Fuses Used by
Our Grandfathers.

Some of the Cumbrous Fuses Used by
Our Grandfathers.
The inventor of the first match men
tior.ed in history did not make fortune
out of his discovery for the reason that
it took almost as much tire and patience
to light one of them as it did by the
flint, steel and tinderboX process, which
ii aimed to supersede. 1t was made
public soon after the Introduction of
phosphorus in England in 1850, and con-
sisted of splint of wood, one end of
which had been dipped in sulphur.
Smokers and others who adopted it,
found it useless without carrying about
small quantity of phosphorus, which,
when rubbed between two folds of brown
paper, emitted fame from which the
match could be ignited.
1t was not in the nature of things that
this should meet with much of sue
cess among even the slow-going inhabi-
tants of England, and staid old gentle
men who carried huge snuff-boxes and
smoked enormous pipes at that period
Aracterized it and subsequent discov-
feries of the same nature as Inventions
of the devil. The most popular of these
was the chemical match of the 'instan-
taneous light-box." This was small
phosphoruscase filed with eighty splints
of wood, which sold for fifteen shillings
and was much affected by the ancient
bucks of London.
The splints were coated with sulphur
at one end and then subjected to bath
OF chlorate OF potash, flower of sulphur,
colophony, gum of sugar and cinnabar
to produce pleasing coloring effect. In
each box was asmall bottle of sulphuric
acid, into which, when light was de-
sired, the match was dipped and at once
ignited by chemical action. This inven-
ton had its drawbacks. Nervous men
under certain circumstances, when called
upon to produce light in the dark were
apt to burn their fingers with the sui
phuric acid, and sometimes, when man
most desired light, he would be thrown
into despair at the discovery that his
bottle was empty.
In 1923 learned professor of chem
istry in Paris introduced an apparatus
which was, if not successful. at least
unique. In this case phosphorus and
sulphur was melted together in glass
tube, which had to be kept securely
corked. To obtain light splint was
inserted into the tube and detached a
small pellet of the mixture, which i'm.
mediately ignited upon exposure to the
air. Another form of the primitive
match was the birthstone match, >
which was made by cuttingdr pieces OF
wood filled with resin into splints six
inches long, with both ends pointed and
dipped into sulphur. 1t could be used
only IL connection with the flint and
steel, however, and aside from the fact
thatwhen one end had been used the
cha'red part could be broken off and the
oner crude end subjected to the same
lkSrocess, it possessed no startling merit.
This and the other crude ancestors of
the match of the present day were in
common use up to the end of the first
quarter of the present century, when
several ingenious inventions were made
public and followed each other in such
rapid succession that the old "brim
stone" match and its awkward contem-
poraries were relegated to deserved OBJ
scuritv -Cbipapo Mail