The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-12-11
A SMALL NECEsSITY.

living there have been wonderful changes going on. and in nothing has the change been more notable than in the small and comparatively insignin- cant conveniences of our daily life. Many and wonderful are the great in- ventions of the past century, and equally noteworthy are some of the small ones.
 Take matches as a most familiar ex- ample. When we can go to a store and buy one thousand good matches for nickel we give little thought to the convenience of them. For thou sands of years men mad no better way of getting fire than by rubbing two pieces of wood together as some say ages do to this day. It was a slight advantage when they found that a flint and piece of steel produced a spark which would ignite finder. This was an improvement on the savage process. and no doubt many readers of this ar- ticle have started fires with flint and steel. Win good finder, or a small portion of gunpowder, 1t was not a dificult or laborious process.
 But 1t is wonderful to reflect that mankind groped in darkness for almost six thousand years without matches. and even then their evolution was slow. Indeed, the first article that could really be called a match was only an adjunct to the flint and steel process, being merely a small splint of dry wood dipped in melted sulphur. and ignited the finder one of these sulphur matches was touched to 1t and a blaze was the result. This was con- sidered real improvement. Then some one invented what was called the Instantaneous light box" That was | a prepared stick or splint, one end of which was dipped in a bottle of sul- phuric acid and on exposing 1t to the | air it burst into flame. This was both | a troublesome and dangerous plan. for the acid was an exceedingly unsafe preparation to carry about in the pock- | ct.
 Still there were no sure enough matches, but they were gradually evo- l luting, or being evoluted. and each step brought them nearer the article as we know it.. It was not till about 1883 that the real lucifer match---it was properly named--came onto the scene. The invention is credited to Sir Philip 1 Congreve, and the first matches were called "congreve matches" but the name lucifer was for long time their distinguishing appellation. Now we don't want any name but matches" for that distinguishes them perfectly.
 To look at a match. or a box of them. they seem insignificant. but we couldn't get along without them now. And that they are not really insignificant Is shown by the money and men en- gagged in their manufacture. There Is one firm in Bohemia which employs 2,7O0 hands. There are firms in Eng ten millions of the little things every day. They are made in all countries of Europe. and in the United States 9 recent statement gave the number of match factories as forty and the an- nual product as five million dollars, so 1t Is plain that 1t is not by any means small business. though one match is a trifing article.
 What goes with all of them? is conundrum only eQualled by that other one about the pins. The number man. ufactured is practically beyond compu- tation. but there must be a market for them. or they would not be made. They are bought and used. for the good ones are not thrown away. Nobody goes without them, unless so situated that they cannot be obtained, for they are now among the necessaries of life. Seeing the universal need and use of them 1t Is hard to imagine that many of us now living can remember when the first ones were used. They were slow In coming but they have made up | for 1t.