Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1896-06-19
MADE WITHOUT HANDS.
Uncle Sam Now Heats the World at
Match Making.

American men, women, boys and girls
turn out more matches day than the
5000 work-people in the largest Eng
lish factory can produce in the same
time, says the Chicago Record. The
Ohio match makers, however, are
aided by thirteen of the wonderful
continuous matchmaking machines" !"
which have added $l25 to every share
OF Diamond Match stock since the be-
gining of the year.
These marvellous pieces OF mechan-
ism, which take blocks of wood and
transform them into perfect matches
packed in box ready for shipment,
have reduced the cost of labor in max
ing matches from q cents a gross of
boxes to 4 cents. They are the in
vention OF Z. B. Beecher, a Con-
necticut Yankee, and large stock
holder of the company, and have been
in successful operation only a few
months.
Each machine is complete in itself.
1t first converts the wood into spill nts,
tips splints with igniting chemicals,
dries the tips, believers the matches
and packs them in boxes, with never a
hand touching splint or u match
from the time the feeder places the
block of wood in the feeding trough
which leads to the rapidly revolving
series of knives. AT all times while the
machine is working there are 1885,
600 splints and matches passing
through it, so that during working
hours the thirteen machines always
are loaded with 97,24O,OOO splints and
finished matches.
The blocks OF wood, which are about
two inches square and just as long as
a match, are fed to a series of revolving
knives that rotate at high speed
The knives reduce the solid block to
splints, either square or round, in cross
sections. Then most ingenious
device sets the splints evenly and ex-
actly in the holes of steel forms on
dies, which are links in an endless
chain OF forms that is continually
moving over large drums and wheels,
up and down, back the sixty five foot
length of the machine, to return to
the splint-making mechanism again.
The loaded steel forms move away
from the loading device with the ex-
posed ends OF the splints hanging
down and away from the face of the
wheels. Soon after leaving the load
ing machine, the splints pass through
the chemical mixture which tips them
and makes matches OF the splints.
The adjustment in such that just the
proper length of splint receives its
proper amount OF the mixture.
After leaving the igniting mixture,
the matches begin slowly travelling,
still confined in the steel forms, up
and around large wheels, moving
slowly, 80 that the tips will be hard
polished and dry when the travel is
| finished. AS each splint is isolated
and the igniting mixture is main
tanned at the right consistency, there
is small chance OF the matches stick.
ing together at the tips. The endless
chain of forms travels so slowly that il
takes an hour and half for the
matches to pass from the chemical
bath to the front part of the machine
where the packing device is placed.
This packing machine is the join,
inventions of experts and OF the
superintendent OF the company. 1t is
revolving table about eight feet in
diameter attended by three girls. The
match-boxes are carried by conveyor
to girl who sits above the machine
She simply sees that the automatic
box feeding devices attends strictly to
business. The empty boxes, which
are formed, sanded and printed by
automatic machinery at the rate OF
300, 500, and 800 minute, depending
on the size OF the boxes, are fed to the
packing-machines without the lids.
The lids are heaped together in a
circular bin in the middle of the round
table. Each box fits into recess in
the table, so that its top is flush with
the surface OF the table. When the
finished matches reach the right point
in the travel of the endless chain they
are stripped from the steel frames and
delivered into boxes, the right number
of matches going into each box.
Occasionally match falls cross
wise, and must be laid straight by the
nimble fingers Of one of the three girls
who sat around the table. The girls
do nothing but put the lids on the
filled boxes as they come around, and
a stripping device takes the boxes out
of the table and carries them to the
table where they are made up into
gross lots for shipments.
Each machine turns out 500 gross
boxes of matches every ten hours, and
the human labor required calls for one
boy to feed the blocks of wood to the
machine, a girl to look after the
automatic box-feeder, and three girls
at the packing table. In addition to
these there is one boy who replenishes
the reservoirs holding the igniting
mixtures for the thirteen machines.