The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-07-20
American Matches and English
Trusts

American Matches ana GnBHSH
Trusts.
have already written of the struggle
between Bryant & May and the American
match trust For years Bryant q May
. had the monopoly of match making in
Great Britain. No one attempted to com
pete with them, and they had little fear
of English opposition. Then the Ameri-
can match trust came in. The Diamond
Match Company. headed by Ohio Column
bus Barber, cast its covetous eyes on
the profits of the British monopoly. and
sent its men here to investigate the trade.
Their report was that the chances were
excellent, the matches in use very poor
and the possibilities of the market enor-
nous. AS a result the Diamond Matcs
Company deter ned upon the phosphoric
invasion of England They built this fac
tory and filled it with the finest ma
chinery.
How Phosphorus Feeds on Human
Jaws.
Bryant & May had been working afte,
old methods. The most of their matches
were strong in phosphorus. and they had
to be dipped in such way that the phos
phorus came in contact with the skins
Of the workmen. Now. phosphorus r.
ordinarily very delet erious. to those work
ing in 1t. 1t is especially 50 to the teeth
The workman or workwoman-for wo-
men are chiefly employed in matchmaking
who has a decayed TOOTH soon finds tina
she has a decayed Jaw, and, If she con-
| tinues to work, no jaw a all. The phos-
| phorus gets into her system, 1t eats II.
| way through the tooth to the bone. and
| the result is the terrible disease known
as necrosis. Bryant q May had thous
and girls working for them and Of thes
| hundreds had decayed teeth. All such
| were affected by the phosphorus, but
they worked on in despair, and became
80 bad that they could not work Th-
heads of the establishment tried to keel
| these conditions a secret, but they at las
Of "a yNt,1NH
| Much indignation was expressed. Par
Uamentary investigation ordered. and In.
firm was notified that no more su
| matches could be made
How the Americans Managed 1t.
1t was about this time that the Diamo
Match Company began its business. j'
made its product b. such machinery II
the hands of the workmen did not con
in contact with the wet phosphorus. az
its goods were put on the market In con.
petition with Bryant & Mays Before
beginning work the Diamond Match
pany had a careful examination made 81
the teeth of its employees. 1t filed thos
that were decayed. and employed re. r.
uar dentist to do nothing else but watch
the teeth of the people working in -
factory
This is the case today. There are about
], 600 girls employed and these girls have
perhaps the purest and sweetest mouths
of any thousand girls you can ma IN
ii
vided into corps, and each corps is under
the head Of a matron. whose business 1t
Is to watch the girls. and to report at
orce if there is anything the matter with
| their teeth. Tho girl hat complains OF a
toothache is sent at once to the dentist.
and the cavity filled or the tooth taken
out Every so often the dentist makes a
personal examination of each mouth and
so far there has been no necrosis what
ever.
How American Machinery Con-
quered.
While the Bryant & May people were
in trouble about their diseased employees.
the Diamond Match Company began to
flood Great Britain with its products. Its
matches were made by the finest of ma
chiuery For years Mr., Barber had been
studying and experimenting. He had
spent as much as $4,000 a year for match
patents and as high as $4,000 in expert
inents and the result was that he went
into the business equipped with the latest
inventions He had made a fortune of
eight or ten million dollars by manufac-
turing matches for the United States his
various works at Barberton. near Akron,
employing about 5000 people. He is also
a thorough business man in every sense
of the word and he brought both expert
ence and brains to aid his patents in
working the trade.
The English Absorbed.
The Bryant & May people soon found
| that 1t was impossible TO compete with
! the Americans. They sent their agents all