The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-08-06


Next these ribbons are fed more than 100
of them at time into another machine,
though first they ara cut into six-foot lengths
and the knotty parts are removed. This
latter contrivance chops them into match
sticks at the rate Of thousands a minute,
which are afterward dried in heated drums
that revOlve. The sticks thus prepared are
then slfted to remove all splinters, and the
same apparatus that accomplishes this pur-
pose arranges them parallel so as to be con-
venieutly bundled. Finally they are dipped
In combustlble mixtures, and, although this
performance is so elaborate as to render
detailed description undesirable, it is per-
formed with as much quickuess as the
process which went before. From the
felled tree to the finished lucifers all is done
by machinery, the boxing only being exc
cuted by hand.
1t was in 1865 that the notion of chem~
ical matches was first conceived. In that
year a French professor introduced for the
purpose small bottle of asbestos, saturated
with strong sulphuric acid, into which little
sticks Of WOODS, coated with suUhur and
tipped with mixture of chiorete OF potash
and sugar, were to be introduced when a
light was wanted. When the wooden splint
thus prepared was brought in contact with
tGe acid in the bottle ignition followed.
In the same year matches tipped with
Jumps of phosphorus seem to have been
known, buc they caught fire too readily by
spontaneous combustion to render them
very desirable for household use. An i'm
provement was introduced in 1928, when
equal parts of sulphur and phosphorus were
melted together in a glass tube, which was
securely corked. When a light was de-
sired a small stick was poked into the tube
and particle of the mixture Withdrawn on
the end of it, On exposure to the air the
substance caught fire spontaneously.
THE FIRST FRICTION MATCHES.
The first really practicable friction
matches were made by an English apothe
cary named Walker in 1927. He coated
splints Of cardboard and tipped them with
a mixture of sulphate of anthony, chlorate
of potash and gum. Each box. holding
eighty-four matches and sold for one shl-
ling, contained also a folded piece of glass
paper, which was to be pressed together
while the match was drawn through it,
Three years later another ingenious person
named ] mes, in London, patented the idea
of a small roll of paper, soaked with chlo-
rate of potash and sugar at one end, with
thin glass globule filed with strong sui
phuric acid attached at the same point
When the sulphuric acid was liberated by
pitching the globule 1t acted upon the chic
rate of potash and sugar SO as to produce
fire.
IL was not until 1888 that the phosphorus
friction match was FIRST introduced on a
commercial scale, and improvements rapid
ly followed, which have produced the fire.
making article as it is sold by the billions
of boxes to-day. For long time the phos-
phorus, which has always been the most
important Ingredient, was found a perilous
thing to deal with. 1t occasioned multi
tudinOus accidents, and was also the cause
OF widespread disease in the factories This
complaint was of most dreadful character,
causing decay of the jawbones Of opera
tives; but it has been found that ventilation
and cleanliness do away with it. Owing to
the dangers of fires from the explosion Of
matches, tue safety" variety has grown
much in favor of late years, the phosphorus
necessary for Ignition being combined with
the mixture applied to the surface of the
box, instead of forming part Of the tipping
substance Of the splints themselves.
WAX MATCHES.
Wax matches, so~called, are manufact-
ured chiefly in Italy and Great Britain.
They are made by drawing strands of fine
cotton thread, twenty or thirty at a time,
through melted stearine, with a small adj
mixture of paraffine. The wax hardens
quickly upon the threads, and the long
tapers thus produced are smoothed and
rounded by pulling them through iron
plates perforated with holes of the desired
SIZE Finally, the tGpers are cut into match
lengths and dipped. In France the making
OF matches is monopoly OF the govern
ment, which farms out the privilege at a
large figure, the result being that it costs
much more to strike light in that country
than it does elsewhere.
When it is considered how old the worlds
civilization is, it seems surprising that man
should have only so very recently learned
how to make fire easily. The primi-
tive flint-and-steel method is but of
the last generation. and that does not APP
far abaod ~ friO ,xr;f
wood. 1t is not astonishing on the whole
that savages should commonly suppose that
fire really exists in wood and stone, since it
is from those every day materials that they
secure portion of Prometheus' precious
theft from heaven.