Birmingham age-herald., 1894-12-15
MAKING OF MATCHES.
A BIG BUSINESS THAT HAS GROWN
 UP IN THIS CENTURY.

tories-The Ancient Roman Method 9f
 "striking a Light"-Different Contriy-
 cnces That Preceded the Lucifer.
 Few people waste thought about match. Merely little, commonplace, everyday trifle of thing made of wood or wax, tipped with latent flame, where with they kindle fires and light the sooth- ing pipe or comforting cigar. It does Its humble work and is contemptuously 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 tho race.
 When Prometheus stole the sacred fire from Olympus, it wasn't in the form of a lucifer match that he did so, or his pun ishment from love might have beon even more terrible than it was, because its use fulness to upstart man would have been so much more formidable Long ages had to pass and the nineteenth century after Christ be well on its way before the match us we see it today was even thought of
 As an industry tho manufacture of matches has very imposing proportions There is something impressive about fig ures to the average mind, and a few sta tistics will carry weight.
 Just take one of the largest English fac tories, for example. Ordinary wooden matches are turned out of that establish ment yearly at the rate of 2, 500,00 gross boxes Each box contains from 90 to 100 individuals If any one has the curiosity to figure out what this amounts to, he will find it means great total of 36, 000,- 000,000 of these wooden splinters, each one of which Is a tiny magazine of fire and potential agent of mighty mischief Tho same factory produces safety" matches to the amount of about one seventh of the ordinary matches-i. e., about G. 900, 900, 900 in the year. It also produces about 52, 900 gross boxes of vesu vians, while wax yestas are poured out at the rate of 35, 900, 900 a day, or 10, 500, GOO, 900 annually.
 This Is all very imposing and is calcu lated to inspire respect for the match. For the yostas produced by that ono facto ry three tons of wax are used every work ing day, meaning total of some 75O tons in tho year. Cotton to the amount of 250 tons is also annually required to produce these little effects. The same factory's annual consumption of vitrcous phos- phorus is 80 tons or more, while the mum Der of persons employed is in the neigh DOFHOOu Ol SiOOO.a NOW, III luC hood of London alone there are about a dozen factories of varying size, so that from facts like thcse one can begin to have faint conception of what the .matchmaking of the world means. Tho total annual value of English match man. ufacture has been estimated at from e1, 500, 900 to 92,0o0, 900, and England is not the greatest producer of matches.
 Tho man who pblpG heoauga ba must rise betimes of cold, frosty morn ing and light fire for the household while it is yet dark should thank his stars that, unlike the ancient Roman similarly situated, he docs not need to spend his strength rubbing together two pieces of hard wood until the spark comes. He has no such trouble in starting fire as many better man than he among his forbears has had with n flint and steel. For 400 years from the time it made it's appear anoe during the fourteenth century, the. clumsy and i'll smelling finder box, with its assortment of steel flint and sulphur tipped 'spunks,' was the mainstay of thy forefathers when they wanted to start fro. It was tho discovery of phosphorus in 1873 by Brand of Hamburg which first set human ingenuity at work searching for improvement on the old order of things. The first efforts, though not grop ing in the dark altogether, were far enough from successful Phosphorus was soon found to bo both inconyenient and dangerous One of the earliest schemes for its utilization was to rub piece of it between two folds of coarse paper and al low the spark of fire so produced to fall upon "spunk" Tho 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 gavo an i'm pctus to invention and finally led to tho match as it is today. Berthollet was the chemist, and tho discovery was known as 'the principle of the oxidation of combus tible bodies by chlorates in the presence of strong acids" Making practical appli cation of this principle, Chancel in 1805 produced his so called "oxymariate match es," in which strips of wood tipped with mixture of ohlorate of potash sugar and gum were ignited by contact with sul phurio acid. About this time also there were various nonphosphoric light produ cers more or less in vogue. One of these was known as ''pyrophorus. ," It was pre- pared by roasting alum with flour and honey or sugar and inflated by exposure to tho air.
 As early as 17S0 there were electro pneumatic fire producers" in use, in which jet of hydrogen was infamed by an electric spark. The Dobereiner "plati mum lamp" belonged to a later date, 1893 In this hydrogen gas was ignited by con tact with spongy platinum. About this