Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-07-18
Written for The Evening Star.
FIRE MADE TO ORDER.

nov Matches Are Made by MillIona-The
ftnt steps Toward . Usefui Invention.
LIVERY MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD IN
- Europe and America, taking the average
uses eight matches every day in the year.
Does II not seem wonderful when one con-
s,ders the enormous number Of matches
which, at that rate. the civilized world uses
each year to light its fires. it's pipes and cigars
and other things which REQUIRE icpit-
ing for purposes Of everyday conye-
niences The very notion Of getting on without
them seems 20 absurd that one does not realize
that IL 10 only within the last sixty years that
they have been procurable. How marvelously
cheap they are, tool In fact. there is no pro-
Duct OF human manufacture that better Illus
frates the expense-saving advantages of ma
chinery. When one machine will turn out
lo.ooo.OO0 matches in ten hours, why should not
mankind regard the phenomenon of FIRE as too
alton?
Sweden Is the great match maker Of the
world, but the industry is conducted on an
enormous scale in the United States and other
countries. The wood used is chiefly pine. white
or yellow. Timber for the purpose Is cut out
In blocks nfteen inches long-long enough to
make seven matches. After being freed from
the bark the blocks are put into a machine re-
tuAhiiik mime. Win nAed cutting
TOOL py which continuous strip OF veneer is
turned on precisely the thickness of q match.
WINE this IL being done small knives separate
tne sheet OF veneer into seven bands so that
seven long ribbons are produced, the width Of
eacn Just the length OF the match that 10 TO be.
CHOPPED INTO MATCH STICKS.
Next these ribbons are fed more than one
hundred Of them at Q time into another ma
chine, though first they are cut into 6-foot
lengths and the knotty parts are removed. This
latter continuance chops them into match
sticks at the rate of thousands a minute, which
are afterward dried in heated drums that re-
Soive The sticks thus prepared are then
sifted to remove all splinters, and the
same apparatus that accomplishes this purpose
arranges them parallel as to be conveniently
bundled Finally they are dipped in COM
oustible mixtures, and, although this per-
Torrance is 30 elaborate as to render a detailed
description undesirable, it is performed with
ss mueh 9uickness as the process which went
before. From the felled tree to the finished
lucifers all is done by machinery, the boxing
only being executed bv hand.
II was In 1915 that the notion of chemical
matches was first conceived. In that year a
French professor introduced for the purpose a
small bottle OF asbestos saturated with strong
suIphuric acid. into which little sticks of wood,
coated with sulphur and tipped with a mixture
OF chlorate of potash and sugar, were 10 be in
PRODUCED when a light was wanted. When the
wooden spilnt thus prepared was brought in
folio we'd.
In the same year matches tipped with Jumps
OF phosphorus seem to have been known. but
they caught fire too readily by spontaneous
combustion to render them very desirable for
household use An Improvement was intro
dnced IN 1873, when equal parts of sulphur and
phosphorus were melted together in a glass
tube. which was securely corked. When a
iisht was desired small stick was poked into
the tube and particle OF the mixture with
drawn on the end of it. On exposure to the
AR the substance caught fire spontaneously.
THE FIRST FRICTION MATCHES.
The first really practicable friction matches
were made by an English apothecary named
Walker in 1927. He coated splints of cardboard
with sulphur and tipped them with a mixture of
sulphate OF antimony, chlorate of potash and
gam Each box, holding eighty-four matches
and sold for one shilling, contained also folded
piece OF glass paper, which was to he pressed
together while the match was drawn
through 1t. Three years later another
ingenious person named Jones. in London.
patented the idea of making a small roll of pa
per. soaked with chlorate of potash and sugar
at one end, with a thin ghss globule filled with
strong sulphuric acid attached at the same
point. When the sulphuric acid was liberated
by pinching the globule it acted upon the
chlorate OF potash and sugar SO as to produce
| fire.
1t was not until 1893 that the phorphorus
friction match was first introduced on a com
merciai scale, and improvements rapidly fol-
| lowed, which have produced the fre-making
article as il is sold by the billions Of
boxes today. For long time the
phosphorus. which has always been the
most important ingredient. was found a
perilous thing TO deal with 1t occasioned multi
| tudlnous accidents, and was also the cause OF
| widespread disease in the factories. This COM
plant was OF a most dreadful character caus-
ing decay Of the jawbone6 of operatives: but it
has been found that ventilation and cleanliness
do away with it. Owing to the danger of fires
from the explosion of matches, the safety
variety has grown much in favor of late years
the phosphorus necessary for ignition being
combined with the mixture applied to the sur
face of the box. instead of forming part Of the
tipping substance Of the splints themselves
WAX MATCHES.
Wax matches, so-called, are manufactured
chiefly in Italy and Great Britain. They are
made by drawing strands of fine cotton thread,
twenty or thirty at time through melted
stearine, with a small admixture 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 tapers are cut into match lengths
and dipped. In France the making of matches
is monopoly Of the government, which farms
ont thee privilege at large figure. the result
being that it costs much more TO strike a light
In that country than it docs elsewhere.
When 1t 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 primitive finland
steel method is but Of the last generation, and
that does not appear SO very far ahead Of fric-
| ton with wood. 1t is not astonishing. on the
whole, that savages should commonly suppose
that fire really exists in wood and stone, since
| II is from those everyday materials that they