The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1893-05-07
ORIGIN OF THE MATCH.
Primitive Methods of Lighting Fires
Down to the Present.
The Revolution Resulting from the Dan
gers of Phosphorus-Latest In
genious Devices, Etc.
IBv WIN. P. Pond.

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thing OF their origin, and their curious
development?
a late theory is that Prometheus OBJ
tanned his first idea from the accidental
striking of his spear againsta stone forth
fication, and the method of obtaining fire
from stones goes back to the time Of the
book of Maccabees, chapter x, v. 8, and
Virgil also alludes to it in his description
of the landing OF Eneas; this was the
ancient type OF flint and steel arrange
ment, which many of the present genera
ton will remember. This, however, is
not the only primitive way of obtaining
fire; before the day OF matches the native
South African, the Bornean and
Australian, in their oldest records, all
understood how to obtain fire from two
pieces of wood, one hard the other soft,
and these were rubbed together until
finder formed, and the heat of the twirl-
ing stick caused Is to shoulder, and the
breath famed it to fame with the touch
of a leaf or blade of glass.
The Dyak of Borneo improved on this
with the idea of adding ready prepared
finder, and SO saving at least half the ex-
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Maiayan tribes made a further improve
ment by cutting draft channel in the
lower piece OF wood so that the punk or
finder readily glowed at the air caused
by the movement of the twirling stick in
the cone shaped hole with which the draft
channel communicated.
With the flint, steel and finder box,
came the Introduction of sulphur matches,
which were simply splints ofwood dipped
in little sulphur which had been
melted in a cup; these were applied to
the smouldering finder and ignited the
sulphur, which soon lit the splint. These
were still in use, in outlying districts
thirty years ago. The next match was
probably the Amadou match, the prin-
ciple of which was brought from the
tropics by q sailor, and which was made
OF species of fungus, the first civilized
manufacture of them taking place in
Germany, where the fungi were cut into
long strips and tipped with sulphur to be
used instead of a sulphur match
with the finder, flint and steel.
Many of the hunters and fisher
men in Germany and Austria to this
day used dried pieces OF fungus to light
their pipes in q storm; a tiny piece Is
wedged in amongst the tobacco and the
briefest touch of a match is sufficient to
fire the Amadou, and the draft through
the stem soon lights the tobacco all
round, and the harder the storm the bet
ter it will light. In the early part of 1856
these Amadou matches were introduced
into this country, q dozen of them in a
strip like a comb, and each match was
tipped with not very satisfactory ig-
milton paste; one of the matches had to
be torn off when required for use and
rubbed gently against some rough sub
81 lfrrl, ~
To the invention OF German peasant
named Kammerer is said to be due the
first friction match, but there are such a
number of claimants all about one time,
1851, that the actual man does not mat
ter. His matches were introduced almost
simultaneously with those of an Austrian,
who was said to have stolen the secret
from the German, and those of an Eng
Iishman named Walker. The match OF
Walker was made OF thin slips OF wood
covered with sulphur, painted over with
chlorate of potash and anthony mixture
and when required to produce light
they were rubbed on a surface of pow
dered glass, and after much careful rub
bing and sputtering, light was eventu-
ally obtained. Specimens OF these
matches still exist in English museums.
Then came the famous Congreve match
SO called after its inventor, Sir William
Congreve, distinguished English soldier,
These were drawn through a sheath Of
sandpaper to ignite them, and this idea
was also re-introduced three years ago,
with tin case for the vest pocket to hold
wax vestas, the upper edges of which
were close enough together to ignite the
match as it was withdrawn. Walker
then again achieved the ascendency from
which he had been temporarily ousted,
by the introduction OF PHOSPHORUS into
his match composition.
In 1915 the Niennese Schroter made the
discovery how to render phosphorus non-
poisonous, or what is now known as
amorphous phosphorus, but public feel
ing was still strong against its use in any
form, and number of other devices were
introduced. One of these was a glass
bottle in which PHOSPHORUS had been
run over the inside surface, and light
was obtained by dipping in an old
fashioned sulphur match, scraping up a
little phosphorus, which when brought
out into the air absorbed the atmospheric
moisture and burst into fame. Another
bottle match of this period has splint
tipped with chlorate of potash mixture
which when dipped into bottle contain
ing sulphuric acid, or coil of vitriol, - as
it was called, ignited.
Following this was the lucifer match,
so called from the smell of birthstone
These contained phosphorus, but the
public did not become aware of this fact,
and for quite some time were made bV
hand, the first approach TO machine be-
ing two razor blades, set in a large log,
against the edges of which were driven
pieces of wood to be split and re-split be
tween blades various distances apart, IN
til the desired square splints were pro-
duced. II was not until 1885, when Ger
many and several other countries caught
the phosphorus scare, that the famous
Tandsticker factory was started in Stock
holm (now employing 2,000 people, and it
was here that the first machines was put
into action. Sweden soon found rival in
Norway, but the match industry in the
latter country amounted to but little, I'M
til 1883, now there are sixteen factories.
Phosphorus was then very rare, worth $40
per pound, and experimenters had hard
time. In 1912 Germany again entered the
field, and some idea of the match industry
may be formed from the fact that in
twelve years one man in Vienna made a
fortune amounting to $4,000, 900. Then
attention was turned to the manufacture
of phophorous, and as an ultimate result
of these early (and to many of the scien-
lists, personally disastrous) experiments.
it can now be bought for 60 cents pound.
"a C@1o NCA44Adut auSIFid
practically monopolized the match bust
ness of the world, III fact until an Eng
lishman named Albright took out a PAL
ent for what are now known as 'silent, -
or safety ma. ahes, which were intro
duced on tine English market about 1854,
and it is believed by many that he pirated
the idea of Swede named Lundstrom.
AT first the new match was not great
success, but when a German named
Schrater improved upon it, there came a
change. He offered his patent to his gov
eminent, but they declined to take it up,
and he then sold the discovery to Sweden.
and as result, in 1862, the Swedish pro-
duct was acknowledged to be the cheap
est, poisonous, non-inflammaole
match in the market, and the price OF
L. Srradar, hai,ac. tLo lo.=a-. ;.