The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-03-25
ELECTRIC MATCHES.
Soon They Will Take the Place of
PhosphOrus-Tipped Splints.

| Ph0sphOruS-IIpped Splints.
Queer Inventions for Striking a Light
Patents on Matches Made of Paper
| Glass. Bone, Stone, and Oyster Shells
| Facts About the Way in Which
Matches Are Manufactured.
| Correspondence of the Boston Tran
SCI !pt)
Washington, Maroh 5-The electric
match ia the next important invention
promised. Before very long the phos-
phorus-tipped wooden splints now in use
will be replaced by a handy little tool
| that may be carried In the pocket or
hung up conveniently for striking light
| when wanted. Twentieth century people
doubtless will speak of the "helI-stioks'
| OF the present day as primitive aud abb
| surd just as we are disposed to look with
scorn upon the flint and steel Of our fore
fathers. Already there Is on the market
a gaslighter which affords more than a
| suggestion of the electric match of the
| future, twist of the handle generating
sufficient electricity to accomplish the
purpose Also there are several styles of
cigar lighters which depend for their. sup
ply of electricity upon storage batteries.
For some years past the gas jets in the
atres and public buildings have been
lighted by the electric spark. Indeed,
most persons have seen the curious ex-
perimenr of lighting the gas with the
finger after shuttle aoloss the carpet to
generate the electricity needed.
TIE portable electric lighter is bound
to come. Meanwhile inventors, as shown
by the records of the Patent Office, exer-
else much ingenuity In trying to i'm
prove on the common, everyday match.
There are matches of hone aud matches
of paste board; also matches made of glass
and matches Of paper, while one enter
prising genius proposes to manufacture
matches out of a mixture of oyster smells
and!olinkers, ground up. Not least interest
ing is spherical match-a little ball of
wood pulp, covered with phosphorus
composition. In using it holder is re-
quired, inasmuch as there is no stick, the
ignited wood-pulp burning slowly until
wholly consumed. Thus there is no res
idue of stick and char to be disposed of,
and matches of this kind have the further
advantage that they are cheap and can
be packed in very small compass, like
pile.
There are several devices for com bi-
ming match and cigar. One of these Is a
sors of peg, made of nitre, sulphur, char
coal, -four and gum-arabic, which Is
stuck on the end of the Cigar. When you
want light, it Is necessary merely to
rub the tip of the cigar upon a rough
surface. A perfumed match has been
patented, the stick being dipped in oil
of cassia. Of course, there are ever 80
many odd sorts of matches actually in
use today, as, for example, the wax
matches. which are employed in Europe
to an extent vastly greater than
in this country. Most of the wax
matches are manufactured in Italy and
Great Britain. They are made by draw
ing strands of fine cotton thread, twenty
or thirty at time, through melted
steaine. This hardens quickly, and she
tapers are rounded by pulling them
| through perforated iron plates. 1t then
remains only to out them into proper
lengths and dip them Into an igniting
composition.
1t is an odd fact that even at the pre-
sent day patents are sought for pipe
lighting oontrivanceE in which rint
and steel are utilized with mechanical
notifications 1t is probable that citi-
zens of the United States use more
matches than any other people in the
world. livery man, woman and child In
| this country taking the average, con-
| sumes eight matches every day in the
yeai. The tobacoo-smoking habit adds
| enormously to the consumption of
matches. La France 1t costs more to
strike a light than in any other civilized
| land, because the manufacture of matches
there is government monopoly. Swe-
den is the great match maker of the
world, though the industry is conducted
on an enormous scale in the United States
and elsewhere.
Pine and aspen are the woods which
| furnish most of the material for match
sticks The logs are cut into blocks IF
| teen inches long, representing the length
of seven matches. Freed from bark, the
block is put into lathe with cuttins
tool by which continuous strip OF
veneer il turned off, just the thickness
of match. Thus the whole block IL
| converted into a sheet fifteen inches
wide. which is cut, incidentally to the
same process. into seven ribbons the
width of each being just the length Of a
match. The ribbons are fed, 100 at a
time, into q machine which chops them
| into sticks. Then the sticks are dried in
heated drums, sifted to get rid of splin-
| tsrs, bundled by maohiney, and dipped
in the combustible mixture. From the
feled tres to the finished match, every
thing is done by machinery. Women
| fill the match-boxes at the rnte Of thirty.
six gross in ten hours.
| The best wood for match sticks ia the
| aspen, and IN Europe some anxiety has
| been caused by threatened exhaustion
of the available supply of that material.
| There are plenty of aapen trees In the