The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-11-28
THE GROWTH OF THE MArcH.

Less Than Ninety Ysars Since the Fir't
 Was Made-Now Matches Are Produced
 in Sue. vast Numb srs that the indiyiduai
 Match Casts Next to sothins-Progress
 Indeed.
 From the Pittsburg Despatch.l
 Few people waste thought about a match. Merely little commonplace, everyday trifie of thing. made of wood or wax. tipped with latent flame, wherewith they kindle fires and light the soothing pipe or comforting cigar It does Its humble work and is eon- temptnously cast aside, And yet the match is. an evolution representative of much human patience, ingenuity and skill. and is one of the best gifts sought out and elaborated by human genius for the benefaction of the race. When Prometheus stole the sacred fire from Olympus it wasn't in the form of a lu- cifer match that he did so. or his pun ishment from love might have been even more terrible than 1t was, because It's usefulness to upstart man would have been so much more formidable. Long ages had to pass. and the nine- teenth century after Christ be well on its way before the match. as we see 1t to-day. was even thought Of. Trifie as 1t is. few things have more thought and ingenuity expended on their production. In Great Britain alone, during the first ninety years of this century, considerable more than 100 patents have been applied for, hav- ing reference. wholly or in part to Inn provements or novelties in machinery for the manufacture of matches, and during the same period at least as many more patents were applied for with ref erence to the composition of the in- fiammatory part of the matches, the material composing the stem, etc.
 As an industry the manufacture of matches has very imposing proportions There is something impressive about figures to the average mind, and a few | statistics will carry weight.
 Just to take one of the largest Eng fish factories for example Ordinary wooden matches are turned out of that | establishment yearly at the rate. of 2,500, ,000 gross boxes. Each box contains from ninety to one hundred individuals. If any one has the curiosity to figure out what this amounts to he will find 1t means great total of 36, 6,O00. COG, 900 of these wooden splinters. each one of which is a tiny magazine of fire and l potential agent of mighty mischief. The same factory produces safety" matches to the amount of about one-seVerith of the ordinary matches-i. e., about 5,000,- O00,0OO in the year. It also produces about 52,000 gross boxes of vesuvians, while wax vestas are poured out at the rate of 35,O0O,O00 a. day, or 10,6O0, ,0O0, 600 annually. This is all very imposing and is calculated to inspire increased res pect for the match. For the vestas pro- l duced by that one factory three tons of wax are used every working day, meaning a total sum of 750 tons in the year.. Cotton to the amount of. 250 tons is also annually required to produce these little effects. The same factorys annual consumption of vitreous phos- phorus is thirty tons or more, while the number of persons employed is in the neighborhood of 2,00O. Now, in the neighborhood of London alone there are about dozen factories of varying size, so that from facts like these one can begin to have faint conception of what the match making of the world really means. The total annual value of English match manufacture has been estimated at from fl, 900 to f2, COG, 900 and England is not the greatest produc- CT of matches.
 The man who grumbles because he must rise betimes of cold, frosty morning, and light a fire for the house. hold while 1t Is yet dark. should thank his stars that, unlike the ancient Rom- an similarly situated, he does not need to spend his strength rubbing together two pieces of hard wood until the spark comes. He has no such trouble in start ing a fire as many better man than he among his forbears has had with a flint and steel. For four hundred years, from the time 1t made Its ap- pearance during the fourteenth century, the clumsy and ill-smelling finder box, with it's assortment of steel, flint, and sulphur-tipped "spunks," was the main, stay of thy forefathers when they want ed to start & fire. It was the discoy- cry of phosphorus in 1873 by Brand of Hamburg, which first set human ingen- uity at work searching for improve ment on the old order of things. The first efforts, though not groping in the dark altogether. were far enough from successful. Phosphorus was soon found to be both inconvenient and dangerous One of the earliest schemes f6r its util. ization was to rub piece of it between two folds of course paper and allow the spark of fire so produced to fall upon t'spunk." The long and the last of such clumsy methods was that phos. phorus fell into disuse. It was another chemical discovery about the beginning of the present century that gave an i'm. petus to invention. and finally led te the match as 1t Is to-day. Bsrtholle, was the chemist, and the discovery was known as "the principle of the oxidation of combustible bodies by chlorates in the presence of strong acids" Making practical application of this principle. Chancel, in 1905, pro. duced his so-called "oxymariate match. es," in which strips of wood. tipped