THE FIRST MATCHES.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 3, 5 January 1922, Page 7

THE FIRST MATCHES.

1 ■ ■ Although millions of matches are used every minute, few people stop to think ! of their origin. Until the end of the eighteenth cen- I fury flint and steel were used to obtain ! fire for all ordinary purposes, ami it ! "as only about a hundred years ago i that an attempt was made to produce a | suitable flame from chemicals. At that time a Frenchman invented a I device consisting of a small bottle con-i t-aining asbestos saturated in sulphuric' acid, with splints of wood tipped with a'■ mixture of chlorate of potash and sugaV. A few years later another man Improved on these primitive matches bypreparing them with a mixture of phosphorus and ma«n.esia. which rendered j them less inflammable. Another attempt was a mixture of i phosphorus and sulphur melted together ] in a thin glass tube. This tube was kept weld corked, and when a light was ! required a thin splint with a small pellet i a* the end ras inserted into the tube. ' When this was withdrawn it ignited. An Englishman named John Walker invented bhe first practical friction match in 1827. These matches took the form of wooden splints covered with sulphur and tipped with a mixture of sulphide of antimony, chlorate of potash. and gum. They were sold in boxes of eighty-four, with a piece of glass-paucr and instructions on how to get a lisht. A few years later another Englishman invented matches which were dubbed "Prometheans." These consisted of a roll o.f paper three inches long with a mixture of chlorate of potash and sugar and a very small glass globule containing sulphuric acid at the tip. One bad to break the jrlobule before it wa* possible to obtain a light.