Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1908-08-13
How Matches are Made.

oIoH d Stranger IOI II, OF UIedms Oi
paying him except by the conven-
tionsl "thank you" That matches
have come to occupy this position is
due largely to American inventive
genius.
The first friction matches were
made and dipped by hand. They
sold for about three dollars a gross.
Today all matches are made and most
of them dipped by machinery, and
one can buy from ffty to seventy.fve
for a cent. Between these two ex-
tremes stretches a long line OF COM
plicated and interesting machines.
Inventors began very early to give
their attention to devices for making
the sticks or splinters 50 cheaply.
One plan after another was tried, un-
til all finally gave way before the rib
bon method. The machine for this
process is a sort of lathe, in which is
placed cylinder Of pine wood the
length Of seven matches. As this
cylinder, previously soaked in hot
water or steamed, to make it soft and
tough, is turned slowly, the circum.
ference encounters blade which pares
off a continuous shaving the whole
length Of the cylinder and the thick
ness of single match. This shaving,
as it peels away from the log, comes in
contact with cutters which divide it
into seven stripes, each as wide as
match is long.
When the ribbons have been cut
into manageable length-say seven or
eight feet-and freed from knots and
crooked grained portions, a large
number of them-from l20 TO l40, are
placed in machine ike an ordinary
paper cutter. The mass is fed for
ward automatically, the width Of
match at a time, and the descending
cutter slices through the mass, making
from one hundred and twenty to one
hundred and forty splints at stroke.
The splints ale now dried and slfted
in partitioned sieves, the motion of
which lays the matches parallel and
prepares them for their places in
frames where they are dippei by
hand.
Some of these machines will turn
out from fifteen to seventeen million
splints day. Rapid and cheap as
this method is, it has beeen suppressed
ed in America by another system in
which the hand.work is reduced to a
The raw material in this
case is two-inch white pine plank.
This is fret sawed into blocks the
length of q match, and thoroughly
dried. The blocks are clsmped to the
bed of machine and cutters groove
out a set of spllnts from the surface,
not however, taking the whole surface,
converting it into splints at one i'm
pact, but cutting the matches out one
fourth of an inch apart.
The splints, thus separated, are
seized in iron clamp plates. which form
an endless chain. These carry the
splints across a steam-beated drum,
which warns them nearly on the tenn
perature of the parafin into which
they are next dipped. The heat pre-
vents the parafin from chilling, and
insures proper saturation.
From the first order to march, these
companies of wooden soldiers have no
permission to halt. They move on
continuously and evenly from the par
afin bath to the rollers which carry
the "heating mixtures, ,"-phosphorous,
chlorate of potash and other substances
and as the companies pass by, these
rollers place red or blue cap on the
head of each individual. The line Of
march continues on through room
swept by blast Of cold, dry air, which
hardens the newly Deposited chemi-
Gals until the matches can be safely
handled.
Still the companies march, until just
before they reach the startling point
again, the individual units receive
their final order to "fall out" from an
automatic and uncompromising punch,
which deposits them side By side in
box placed, providentially, in just the
right place, and at just the right time,
by another endless belt.
The cutters meanwhile have been
eating away the ridges which were
left between the places from which the
fret set Of splinters were cut, and 90
it goes until the whole block has been
sonverted into slim little red or blue
capped fellows, each one snappish and
full Of FIRE.
A Boon to Elderly People.