The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1895-01-02

1
Few people waste a thought about a
match. Merely a little, commonplace,
everyday trifle of thing made of wood
or wax, tipped with latent flame, where
with they kindle fires and light the sootb-
ing pipe or comforting cigar. 1t 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 benefaotion of the race.
When Prometheus stole the sacred fire
from olympus, 1t wasn't in the form of a
luoiter match that he did so, or his pun
ishment from Jove might have been even
more terrible than it was, because its nse.
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
as we see it today was even thought of.
AS an industry the manufacture of
matches has very imposing proportions
There is something impressive about fig
ures to the average mind and a few sta
tistics viii 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 2,5OO, 600 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 80, 900, e.
| 600, 900 of these wooden splinters, each
one of which is a tiny magazine of fire
and potential agent of mighty mischief
The same factory produces safety"
matches to the amount of about one.
seventh of the ordinary matches-i. O..
about 5000, 600, 900 in the year. 1t also
| produces about 81, 900 gross boxes of vesu.
vians, while wax vestas are poured out at
the rate of 80, 900, 900 a day, or 10, 500,
| 600, 600 annually.
This is all very imposing and is calcu-
lated to inspire respect for the match
| For the vestas produced by that one facto-
| ~ three tons of wax are used every work
| ing day, meaning a total of some 75O tons
/ in the year Cotton to the amount of $50
tons is also annually required to produce
| these little effects. The same factory 8
annual consumption of vitreous phos-
| phOrus is 80 tons or more, while the num-
Der of persons employed is in the neigh
| borhood of 1000. Now, in the neighbor
| hood of London alone there are about a
dozen factories of varying size, so that
from facts like these one can begin to
have a faint conception of what the
matchmaking of the world means The
| total annual value of English match man
| ufacture has been estimated at from e1,
| 500, 600 to 92, 600, 600, and England is not
| the greatest producer of matches.
The man who grumbles because he
must rise betimes of a 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 does 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
a better man than he among his forbears
| has had with flint and steel For 400
years, from the time it made its appear
ance during the fourteenth century, the
clumsy and i'll smelling tinder box with
its assortment of Steel flint and sulphur
tipped spunks," was the mainstay of thy
! fOrefathers when they wanted to start a
fire. 1t was the discovery of phosphorus
in 1878 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 crop
ing in tho dark altogether, were far
enough from successful Phosphorus was
|
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" The long and the last
of such clumsy methods was that phos-
phorus fell into disuse. 1t was another
chemical discovery about the beginning
of the present century that gave an i'm
petus to invention and finally led to the
match as it is today. Berthollet was the
chemist, and the discovery was known as
the principle of the oxidation of combus-
tible bodies by CELEBRATES in the presence
of strong acids" Making practical appli-
cation of this principle Chancel in 1905
produced his SO called "oxymariate match
es," in which strips Of wood tipped with
a mixture Of chlorate of potash, sugar and
gum were ignited by contact with sui
phuric acid. About this time also there
were various nonphosphoric light produ.
GERS more or less in vogue. One of these
was known as "pyrophorus 1t was pre-
pared by roasting alum with flour and
honey or sugar and inflated by exposure
| to the air.
As early as 1880 there were electro
pneumatic fire producers" in use, in
which a jet of hydrogen was inflamcd by
an electric spark. The DODCreiner 'plati-
mum lamp belonged to a later date, 1923
In this hydrogen gas was ignitod by con
tact with sIOngy platinum. About this
! time also tlera were in use in parts of
! Prussia small glass tubes containing equal
parts Of osphorus aud sulphur carefully
fused together. Into this s,lii ers of
wood were thrust ard then igniIed by
! friction
1t was not until 1927 that the real pre-,
cursor of our pr,r,.nt day match appeared,
In April Of that yJrr John Walker of
| Stockton on Tees invented lgcifcr match
es, or conGroScs, as tney were called, after
Sir William Congruy,, Inventor of the
rocket These conpraycs consisted OF
wooden splints or strips OF cardboard tip
ped with mixture Of suip'.lau Of ultiho.
ny chlorate Of potash, guin and star9h
No phosphorus was used. They were ig-
nitcd by rubbing on glass or sandpaper--
| Pittsburg Disuatch