IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU-
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Arthur Albright, of George Street, Edgbaston, in the
County of Warwick, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU-
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Arthur Albright at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition on the 25th
September 1856.
I, ARTHUR ALBRIGHT, of George Street, Edgbaston, in the County of
Warwick, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE MANUFACTURE OF LUCIFER MATCHES, AND OF BOXES SUITABLE FOR CONTAINING
THE SAME," to be as follows:-
The improvements in the manufacture consist in the use of flour paste to
cause the materials of which the head of the match is composed to adhere to
the splint of wood or raw match. Also, in omitting from the composition of
which the head of the match is formed either phosphorous or chlorate of
potass, and in afterwards applying to the surface of the heads of matches,
according as one or the other of the above-named substances has been omitted,
a thin coating of amorphous phosphorous, which is made to adhere by a suitable
cement or chlorate of potass, by dipping the heads of the matches in a
solution of that substance. Also, in coating or varnishing the heads of lucifer
matches with an aqueous shellac varnish, or with a mixture of white of egg or
blood with lime or chalk, to which may be added powdered glass, oxide of
iron, and other substances.
The improvements in the manufacture of boxes suitable for containing lucifer
matches consist in coating boxes (made of chip or scale board doubled up to

page_text: form the box) with varnish or composition, to render them waterproof or
partially so. The compositions above mentioned for coating the match heads
are also very suitable for coating the boxes.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Arthur Albright in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
24th March 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ARTHUR
ALBRIGHT, of George Street, Edgbaston, in the County of Warwick, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fifth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the twentieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Arthur Albright, Her special licence that I, the said Arthur Albright,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Arthur
Albright, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the
term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU-
FACTURE OF LUCIFER MATCHES, AND OF BOXES SUITABLE FOR CONTAINING THE SAME,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Arthur Albright, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their,
or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed,
and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Arthur Albright, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement
thereof, that is to say:-
The improvements in the manufacture consist in the use of flour paste to
cause the materials of which the head of the match is composed to adhere to
the splint of wood or raw match. Also, in omitting from the composition of
which the head of the match is formed either phosphorous or chlorate of

page_text: potass, and in afterwards applying to the surface of the heads of matches,
according as one or other of the above-named substances has been omitted, a
thin coating of amorphous phosphorous, which is made to adhere by a suitable
cement or chlorate of potass, by dipping the heads of the matches in a solution
of that substance. Also, in coating or varnishing the heads of lucifer matches
with an aqueous shellac varnish, or with a mixture of white of egg or blood
with lime or chalk, to which may be added powdered glass, oxide of iron, and
other substances.
The improvements in the manufacture of boxes suitable for containing lucifer
matches consist in coating boxes, made of chip or scaleboard doubled up
to form the box, with varnish or composition, to render them waterproof or
partially so. The composition above mentioned for coating the match heads
are also very suitable for coating the boxes.
The following is the manner of preparing the lucifer match composition, into
which the paste of wheat flour enters, and which I will call "the simple
amorphous phosphorous cold composition," meaning by cold, that no heat is
required in the operation of dipping the matches in it.
I take of best wheat flour 2 parts and of water 14 parts, and mix them
together and boil them into paste. In boiling this mixture into paste it
naturally loses some of its water, it is therefore needful to take care that
it does not become too thick.
I take of this paste
of chlorate of potass in very fine powder
of very finely powdered glass
15 parts
making
6
"
parts
31
"
of powdered amorphous phosphorous 1 to 2
"
26 to 27
After having intimately mixed these materials, I add, if needful, a small quantity
of water to reduce the mixture to such a consistency as to make it adhere in
For a sulphured
suitable quantity to the ends of the splints dipped into it.
splint, but a small quantity of the composition is needful; for one dipped in
stearine, more is required. These matches will maintain a good condition so
long as they are kept dry.
To harden the composition to enable it better to resist humidity, I make
use of the different methods for the preparation of the flour paste, and which I
will now describe.
First, to the proportions of flour and water above given I add one or two
per cent. of sulphate of alumina (free of potass), and I allow the materials to
repose for half an hour before boiling into a paste; when the paste is made
I add a quantity of powdered chalk, equal in weight to that of the sulphate of
alumina employed, in order to combine with the acid of the latter.

page_text: Or, secondly, I make the flour paste with water, to every half pint of which
the white of one egg of average size has been added.
Or, thirdly, for half the quantity of water required for the paste I substitute
an equal volume of fresh uncoagulated blood.
Or, fourthly, if I wish to obtain a very hard composition, I add to the
pastes Nos. 2 and 3 one half per cent. to one per cent. of chalk, and the
same quantity of red oxide of iron, and 3% or more of a solution of glue,
consisting of glue
water
}}},
3.
It is desirable to use the best quality of flour, and to pass the paste through
a sieve before using it.
I will now describe the mode of preparing the lucifer match, into the first
dip of which no phosphorous enters, but the ignition of which is made to
depend on there being afterwards attached to it a small portion of that
substance.
The following are the methods of preparing the two compositions, which
I will call B preparatory and B final, which together form the lucifer match.
The B preparatory composition I make in mixing together-
5 parts of very finely powdered glass,
5
"
2
"
30
"
15
"
sulphuret of iron,
red oxide of iron,
chlorate of potass,
solution of glue (glue, 1 part; water, 2 parts),
57, which if too thick may bear dilution with 3 parts or
more of water, which will make 60 parts more of
B preparatory composition.
I prefer these materials, as perfectly inocuous, in case of the matches being
accidentally or otherwise swallowed.
The two preparations of iron, forming together seven parts of the above
composition, may at pleasure be replaced by five parts of the red sulphuret of
antimony, often called crocus of antimony. The composition may also be
made somewhat cheaper by omitting the oxide of iron and replacing 5 out of
the 30 parts of chlorate of potass by 10 parts of peroxide of manganese (con-
taining 90% of peroxide.
Into a preparatory composition prepared as above described I dip the
sulphured, or stearined, or otherwise prepared splints in the ordinary manner,
the composition being maintained at the needful state of fluidity by means of
heat, applied according to any of the usual methods. The dipping operation

page_text: may be performed without the smallest apprehension of danger from the use of
this composition. The matches dipped in them dry rapidly in their frames, and
in order to convert them into lucifer matches they are coated with the B final.
composition, of which the following is the composition :---

page_text: position to the once-dipped matches; the first, that of transferring the final com-
position to the ends of the matches by means of a hollow cylinder of vulcanized
india-rubber of about 2-inch thickness, its circumference being one-third more
than the length of the frames containing the matches, and its length equal to
the breadth of the frames; the second, that of dipping a frame filled with the
matches into a very thin bed of the final composition. For both these methods
I employ a shallow tin dish, three quarters of an inch deep, and of an area be-
tween that of the frame and that part of it which is occupied by the matches
placed ready for dipping. The bottom of the dish ought to be perfectly level,
and for use to be also placed on an exact level surface. When thus made ready,
I introduce the requisite quantity of the final composition. A larger quantity
will be required where the transfer is to be made by means of the india-
rubber cylinder than when it is to be made by dipping. In using the india-
rubber cylindrical roller, I revolve it in the final composition, so as to coat there-
with two-thirds of its perimeter, and then immediately pass it over the ends of
the matches duly fixed in the frame, and I thus communicate to them the coating
of final composition, in a manner much resembling that by which printers' ink
is communicated to the types. It may bappen that some of the matches have
not been touched, but these should be very few; and this defect I remedy by
a morsel of sponge dipped in the composition.
The second mode of coating the matches, that of dipping a frame of them
into the final composition, requires no description; the only nicety required
is not to empty a needless quantity of composition by having too much in the
tin dish.
The above-described method of using amorphous phosphorous presents
the advantage of entirely obviating the danger (especially when heat is
required, as in all glue-made matches,) which may arise from mingling the
amorphous phosphorous and the chlorate of potass in one composition. It has
also the advantage of great economy in the very small quantity of amorphous
phosphorous required by this method to ignite the lucifer match.
The following is my method of preparing lucifer matches from which chlorate
potass is excluded in the first or preparatory composition.
The sulphured, or stearined, or otherwise prepared splints are dipped into
of a composition formed as follows, which for distinction I will call preparatory
composition C:-
Amorphous phosphorous
Powder of pure nitrate of potass -
2 parts
5
"
16 marts

page_text: tin dish, of a suitable shape to admit a frame of matches, which is dipped into
the same, so as to allow the fluid to cover completely the inflammable com-
position of each match, and slightly to adhere to the wood above.
The same varnish and albuminous mixtures may be used for rendering the
scaleboard of the boxes in which matches are commonly packed at least
partially waterproof, and if an albuminous mixture be first laid on the boxes,
then a coating of the shellac varnish to follow will render the effect more
complete. The application may be made with a brush, or in any convenient
manner.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, I would have it under-
stood that I do not confine myself to the exact details either of proportions
of materials used or description of apparatus employed; but what I do
claim is,-
First, the use of flour paste to cause the materials of which the head of the
match is composed to adhere to the splint of wood or raw match.
Second, the separation of the amorphous phosphorous and chlorate of potass,
which form the active ingredients of the lucifer match, into two compositions
or parts, which are to be applied separately to the sulphured, stearined, or
otherwise prepared splint.
Third, the use of an aqueous shellac varnish, or a mixture of white of egg
or blood with lime or chalk, for coating lucifer matches, and also the use of
the said varnish and albuminous mixtures to coat the boxes of scaleboard
employed to hold the lucifer matches.
In witness whereof, I, the said Arthur Albright, have hereunto set my
hand and scal, this Thirteenth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
Witness,
JACOB HORT HAYER,
of Bristnall Fields, Oldbury.
ARTHUR ALBRIGHT. (L.s.)