The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-03-25

maohlne producing both ribbons and
noA te from the same stuff. A CUBIC
lLeUIe or aspen wood, OF matches, 1s
worm from 81. 90 to $6.19
truly 1T would seem out Of the ques-
tion 10 get along without matches: yet
tney We're unknown sixty-five years ago.
liners must have been time when early
man Knew not how to make fire, and
some very primitive tribes today have
noG mat knowledge. savRges quite gsn-
orally believe that fire actually dwells In
4 Woou and stone, because from those sub
stances it can he obtained by friction or
ny striking. Some savages are able to
make fire with two sticks in fraction
OF minute, whereas the Amos OF Japan
require two hours to accomplish the
same feat. One of the queerest ways of
making fire Is practised by the Malays,
who cut a Vshaped slit in branch of
the oil tree aud saw at 1t with a knife
edged stick of ironwood In three min
utes the sawdust thus produced becomes
lnchndescent and finder Is applied. The
ignlted finder IL wrapped In dry grass
i ana whirled around the head of the opsr-
ator until it is aflame.
Another process for making fire by
saving involves the use of TWO sticks of
BAMBOO, one convex and the other with
q knlfe-edQe. The former is placed with
the convex side I'D and sawed with the
latter, the dust becoming inoandescent
and falling upon tiuder that has been
placed beneath. BAN boo is a first-rate
friction material, its hard coat being
favorable. to the development of the great
heat, while the soft substance inside is
highly inflammable. The Polynesians
are the only people who make fire by the
| plOughinR process, rubbing a groove in
q piece of soft wood With the end Of a
stick Of hard wood The stick of hard
| wood pushes the PARTICLES Of soft wood
snso little heap in the end Of the
| groove, which is finally brought to the
point Of ignition and gives fame without
finder. Most remarkable of all appliance
for producing fire is the fire syringe"
| OF Borneo and Burmah, which is q small
cylinder of buffalo horn with plunger.
smart blow struck upon the plunger
congresses the air in the cylinder SO sud-
denly that it gives up enough Of Its heat
to ignite the finder inside
| The early Spanish oonquerers brought
with, them to America first improvement
that was made on the primitive flint and
steel. 1t was a metal tube through which
ran a hemp cord. Flint and steel were
attached to the tube and, on being struck
together, ianited the cord. The first
chemical match was made by French
scientist in 1905, who prepared a bottle
| OF asbestos saturated with sulphurio
acid, into which sticks of wood coated
with sulphur and tipped with ohlorate Of
potash and sugar were introduced. When
the stick came into contact with the acid
ignition followed. In the same year
matches were tipped with Jumps Of phos-
phorus bus they were not available for
ordinary use because of the disposition
of the phosphorus TO ignite itself sponta-
neously. In 1928 an inventor hit on the
plan of melting equal parts Of sulphur
and phosphorus and putting them In
glass tube, which was tightly corked.
| 10Th w a CT
poked in, Withdrawing particle Of the
mixture, which on exposure took fire.
The first practical friction matches
were made in 1927 by an English apothe-
cary named Walker, who coated splints
of cardboard with sulphur and tipped
them with mixture of sulphate of
anitmony, ohlorate of potash and gum.
A box of eighty-four matches sold for
one cent. piece Of glass-paper being
furnished with 1t for obtaining ignition,
In 1880 London man named Jones de-
vised a species of match which was a
little roll of paper soaked in chlorate Of
potash and sugar, with a thin glass
taohed to one end. The globule being
broken, the acid acted upon the potash
and sugar, producing fire. Phosphorus
matches were first introduced Oh a COM
mereial scale in 1888 and after that i'm
proyemsnts were rapid.
|
one instrumen arrangements for Great
ing spark, catching it on finder. and
starting blaze-Eteps requiring separate
operations In primitive oonfrivances. 1t
was In 1886 that the first United States
patent for friction matches was issued.
Splints for them were made by saving or
splitting blocks of wood into sill vers at
"slab' or 'block' matches, and they
are in use In parts of this country today.
The latest Important invention in
matches secures tho separation of the
chemicals, which in combination are al
ways more or less dangerous. Thus is
obtained the "safety" match, which was
invented by Swede nameH Lundstrom
in 1856 The head of the safety natoh
contains chlorats Of potash and sulphur
while the friction paper on the box is
spread with paste of amorphous phos-
phorus and anthony.
Among the odd varieties of matches
now in vogue are the "vestas. of which
for lighting in a wind, with a short thick
stick tipped with a large mass of ohlorate
of potash compositions; and natural
gas" matches, with very long splint
for lighting natural gas fires. In former
days the manufacture OF phosphorus
matches was attended with great danger
to the workmen from the fumes, which
caused decay OF the bones of the Jaw.
Many persons were poisoned from care
lessness in handling them, and numerous
oonfia grntions occurred on account OF the
ease with which they were ignited. The
"parlor match" had its origin with the
manufacture in 184S, Of Y Schrotter
amorphous phosphorus. This product
has neither odor not taste, is not pois-
onous, and does not take fire at ordinary
temperatures. Mr.. Walter Hough. of
the National Museum, to whom the
writer is indebted for good deal of his
inform alton, says that before long cleo
tricity will greatly reduce the oonsump-
ton of matches. The electric match will
represent the final elimination of the
| aYolution of fre-making apparatus.