The Opelousas courier., 1892-02-06
HISTORY OF THE MATCH
THE FIRST LUCIFER WAS MADE IN
A GERMAN DUNGEON.
After Their Invention the Manufac-
ture OF Matches Was Forbidden
for a While-A Great Industry.

Alter Their Invention the Manufac-
ture OF Matches Was Forbidden
for a While-A Great Industry.
~ wonder does any one know the his
tory of the %lucifer," said Mr.. II. c. Zap
part the other day at the Southern. 81
tell you why I ask. I was once standing
here Just where I am now anc I met an
Engishman. The Englishman had a
whole-hearted swear at things in gen
eral. You are frozen in the SUMNER
he said, land you are heated in the win
ter till one might believe you were be-
ing toasted brown IN a mistake for a
muffin for breakfast, and you cannot buy
a wax vesta.' 1t occurred to me that
there was not so much calse for com
plant in respect to this last item at least,
for you know man has gone on for prob
ably a couple of thousand years without
a match at all, mich less the wax vesta.
"For the comfort Of such gentlemen
as l have just mentioned I will give you
the history of the match. First Of all,
what do you think is its value? In the
United States the value of a single match
would be the 360th part of a cent,
and in Europe about half the price.
Think Of it, $50 matches, the wood
chopped and all other things done, and
the lot neatly packed into a little box for
1c., and yet there are large fortunes
made out of matches. France has been
enabled to meet the terrible heavy la
bility involved in the war with Germany
through making the match industry a
monopoly. AS I have said, the world
had to do without the match for thou
sands Of years. You would find it diff
| cult to find a monument to the genius of
the inventor, and probably the majority
of men do not even know his name.
at is the old, old story. The man who
introduced an article by which millions
of dollars have been made, and are still
made, an article which is considered En-
d~ispensable to society died poor, broken
hearted and forgotten in a lunatic
asylum. The first phosphorus match
was made by one John Frederic
Komerer, in Ludwigsburg, Germany.
He had been imprisoned for some poll
teal ofense in the penltentlary at
Hohenasperg. The Governor of the
prison treated the convicts with humanity
and allowed Komerer, who was a
chemist by profession, to make scientific
experiments. In the cell of a gloomy
dungeon the first lucifer was struck to
the great delight of the unhappy
prisoner. 1t came as a ray of hope to
the man shut out from the rest of the
world and from all that made life dear.
GA year later Komerer was released.
At that time no patent law existed, and
the ex-prisoner being a man with
out capital had to fight three companies
in Vienna. His opponents had means,
while he had none. But a still harder
blow was in store for him. The Ger.
man Government had a notion that mat
ches were dangerous because some chill
dren playing with them caused a conda-
grafton. and in a fit Of incomprehensiblt
stupidity passed a law forbidding the
manufacture of all kinds of matches
Thus was Komerer ruined. Other couu
tries took the matter up, and in 1915
the law of Germany was repealed. II
1853 a millionaire matchmaker existed
in Vienna. His millions increased a
the years went by, and he retired afte
twenty years work with a fortune 0
SO, 600, 900.
"Up to 1862 the Vienna manufacturer
controlled the match business of tn
whole globe. They worked in the moo
impraeticable way, without machinery
There was a fixed idea that machlner
was useless, and that the work should b
done by hand. One particular even
caused the downfall Of the Vienna me
nopoly. This was the invention OF tn
safety match. The principal materis
in which the igniting composition
dipped is phosphorus. One hundre'
years ago it was nothing more than
chemical curiosity, produced in yer
small quantities and an ounce of it wa
sold for an ounce of gold. Now
pound can be bought for sixty cents.
ssThe extraordinary lgniting powers 9
phosphorus cannot be equaled by any Q
the chemical substances now in use, bu
it is a most poisonous article, and man
suicides were committed with an emu
sion of the heads of the matches of Whic
it formed a part. 1t also caused a teri
bly, deadly disease among the poor oper'
tors in the factories. Professor Shrat'
made a discovery of something which +
dueed the deadly elements of the pho
phorus. He offered his discovery to tt
leading Vienna manufacturers, but Il
offer was rejected. By some way the di
covery found its way to Sweden, al
there a new industry sprung up, whi'
gave employment to thousands of han
and realized millions of dollars.
Sweden produces no other but safe
matches, and they are exported to 8
parts of the world. In Germany,A ustri
Switzerland and Holland phosphor
match factories are under State contro
to prevent as much rs possible the sprei
Of the disease to which I have referre
The girls must wear special dresses; t
factories must possess special lavatcri
! and din~ing-rooms, and a medical m
] must examine the Surroundings and Sc
IN q report once a week to the facto
inspector. The manufacturer must p
for the medical treatment.
, tit is strange that the safety mat
|, has not found favor in the United Statt
the most progressive country in the worl
Only a few are used in Eastern citi
and these are mostly imported from sy
den.
q .The number Of factories in the Sta
d Of the Union is very small, as compar
~ ~s@L E,wa +La fnli.-no a&aI;ae