The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-12-21
THE MAKING OF MATCHES.

N OE
The Old "Locosocos" Are No Longer
Considered the Greatest Invention
From the Chicago Record.
"Give me a light" said the man on the
grip car. biting off the end of his cigar
His friend silently handed him some
thing which looked like a wooden comb.
The man with the cigar glanced at the
piece of silvered wood and said: AN
other patent match. eb?" and, breaking
one Of the matches off, struck it on his
boot heel.
The head broke. and he detached an
other splinter. He handled this match
more tenderly. but failed to get light.
Here" said his friend Il forgot to give
you the rest of it," and he handed him a
piece Of folded sandpaper. When the
third match was struck on the rough
surface Of the paper it went off with a
loud report, and the fumes of the sui
pnur choked the man with the cigar.
Blamed poor patent" he muttered,
throwing his cigar away in disgust for his
first puff had hlled the cigar with the
sulphurous fumes. His friend laughed
and replied: That's locofoco, the first
of the friction machines; the old-fashioned
lucifers that our granddaddies used. I
have a dozen combs left from the lot
which / found In our attic down east last
summer"
Il thought locofocos were the early dem
ocrats," said the other man.
80 they were, and it was such matches
as those which gave them their name.
Back in 1850 l believe ii was, the New
York wings called a meeting The demo-
Gratis wanted to run the affair, so they
blew out the candles. The wings left,
taking the candles with them, so the
democrats lighted locofocos and went on
with the meeting, and for many years
after were called locofocos. That is the
story my granddaddy told me when l
found the ucifers.'
The locofoco matches We're brought over
from Europe to America between 1925 and
1880 The Yankees gave them that name,
for they were called "congreves' on the
other side of the water, after the in
ventor of the Congreve rocket. When they
We're introduced people talked about them
as the greatest invention of the age and
thought there could be no Improvement
on them. with each comb of lucifers
piece of sandpaper was used, and the
Americans at once proceeded to show
that the locofoco could be improved by put
ting them in a box and pasting the sand
paper on the lid. The locofoco was coated
with sulphur and tipped with a mixture
of sulphide of anthony, chloride Of pot
ash and an adhesive gum 1t was the eff
spring of the sulphur-tipped splints,
which were lighted from flint, steel and
/ Undertook and the immediate predecessor
| of the present PHOSPHORUS match.
The phosphorus friction match was in
1 troduced commercially in 1888, little more
/ than sixty years ago, made from first to
/ last by hand, subjecting the workmen to
/ horrible bone diseases from the phosIhoric
vapors and was considered too eXpen-
! sive for the common people to use. To-day
machinery turns matches so rapidly that
/ one English factory produces annually
/ over $4,000 000, GOO matches, of which over
/ 5000 100000 are saftey matches.
One of the most interesting exhibits
! shown in machinery hall at the world 5
fair was a model matchmaking factory
] in the German section. Here all the ma
chinery required to make matches, ex-
cept the saw mill for cutting out the
I blocks of wood from which the splinters
are made, was shown, and one splint-
cutting machine had a capacity of 15000,
coo splints a day. The Swedish. German,
English and American processes are alike
in the main features, but all vary more
/ or less in the character OF the Iabor-sav-
ing machinery and according to the
/ matchmakers, each factory has its own
I private secret mixture for the tips For
instance, in one factory the splints the
wooden part Of the match, are cut by
rapidly revolving knives. In another
factory the block Of wood is pressed end
wise through steel plate perforated
with holes, and the wood, pressed against
the plate by steam or hydraulic power, is
/ splntered in coming through the holes.
Yellow pine, white pine, aspen and pop
4 lar are among the woods used for making
matches. In making square matches a
block of wood after being soaked with
water, is placed in a lathe-like tool. and
| a thin veneer or continuous shaving the
/ thickness of a match is peeled off by the
! cutting tool. This veneer varies in width
/ according to the way in which the matches
! are made. In some factories the veneer
/ is as wide as the length of seven matches,
| in others the veneer is only the width
/ of two match lengths. Some machines
/ slice up the veneer into the proper
/ length for a match as it is cut from the
! block, and others use the full width of
/ the veneer for the splinting machines
/ After the wooden band or veneer is made
it is fed into a chopping machine, which
/ chops off the match splints 200 to 800 al a
/ time.
/ The matches are placed in revolving
/ drums and dried, and are then put through
sleeves, which clean the match splnts of
/ slivers dirt and dust and at the same
time arrange them evenly in parallel
order When this is done the spIints
are ready TO be dipped
! In dipping the matches into the igniting