Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1918-04-11
Match is of Recent Origin.

Match is of Recent Origin.
Men are not critical in their choice
of matches, yet there is wide differ
ence in the quality of these things, even
though the retail price appears to be a
cent a box for all kinds, whether they
are excellent, good, poor, bad or the
worst. To the man and smoker a box
Of matches is a box of matches. Not
one purchaser in hundred, or perhaps
in a thousand, regards the label on a
match box or makes the effort TO ac-
quaint himself with the brand of match
which gives him satisfaction, or with
which he cannot light his pipe except
ing after many trials. One reason,
perhaps, for this condition is that so
many of the matchbox labels are in a
foreign language. A man in most cases
will continue to buy the same brand OF
matches which break before they light,
ignite only after tearing the paper off
the box, or in so many thousands of
cases will not light at all, or after
lighting will expire before communi-
eating the flame to the pipe, cigar or
cigarette.
The word snatch" is quite old, hav-
ing for centuries been applied to any
thing having the quality of carrying
fire, but the match as the world knows
it today is relatively new device.
Thefirst main step toward the making
Of the present type of match was in
lS05,when Henry Chancel, chief as
sistant to Tenard, the great French
chemist, invented an apparatus con-
sisting of small bottle of asbestos
and strong sulphuric acid, with accom-
panying wood splints which were coat
ed with sulphur and tipped with a
mixture of chloride of potash and sug-
ar. The match, on being brought in
contact with the sulphuric acid in the
bottle, burst into flame. About twen-
ty years later an obscure druggist,
John Walker by name, living in Stock
ton-on-Tees, Durham, England, intro
duced the first match to be lighted by
friction. 1t was given the name Of the
"Congreve," or sometimes the Con
greve match" the name being taken
after Sir William Congreve, inventor of
the Congreve rocket, a military device
which Americans first saw during the
course of the battle Of Bladensburg.
These Walker-Congreve matches
consisted of wooden splints on card
board coated with sulphur and tipped
with a mixture of sulphur and anti
mony, cholorate of potash and gum.
With each box of these matches came
a piece of glass paper folded so that
holding it in one hand and drawing the
match with the other through the fold
er paper the friction set off the COM
bustible. The price of those matches
was Is cents box, and the purchasing
power of 25 cents was then no doubt
about four times greater than it is now,
so that relatively those old-fashioned
matches, then so new-fangled, was
about 81 box.
Closely following the inventions in
dicated came those by a Vienna chem
ist, whose name was J. Drescher, and a
chemist Of Darmstadt, whose name as
preserved was Frederick Moldenhauer.
The match which those men brought
into the world was known as the phos-
phorus friction match. The use of
those matches, because Of the presence
of white phosphorus, was attended with
considerable danger. Many cases of
murder and suicide by PHOSPHORUS
poisoning were recorded. 1t was about
1880 that the safe and simple match
tipped with red or amorphus phosphor-
Gus came into use.
The ignition of PHOSPHORUS by the
heat of friction has been known since
the seventeenth century, when small
pieces Of PHOSPHORUS were ignited by
friction and the fire communicated TO
small splnts of wood. 1t is recorded
that the complicated and cumbrous
character of this device rendered its
general use impossible, so that even at
the beginning of the nineteenth centu-
ry flint and steel rubbed against tinder
boxes or sulphur-tipped splints Of
wood were used for getting a light.
The word snatch" is often seen in
connection with early firearms. That
match consisted of cord of hemp or
woolor cotton treated with inter, so that
il would continue to smolder after
having been lighted. This kind Of a
match was sometimes attached to the
hammer of a musket; and as the ham,
mer fell the smoldering cord was
brought in contact with the printing
powder of the gun, and thus the fame
was. communicated to the propelling
charge in the barrel.