CENTENARY OF THE MATCH

Evening Star, Issue 19004, 28 July 1925, Page 4

CENTENARY OF THE MATCH

ACCIDENTAL DISCOVERY SOLD AT Is 4d EACH. Yet another centenary this year is that of the hicifcr match, the invention of John Walker, a Stpckton chemist who discovered the igniting mixture (sulphide of antimony and chlorate of potash) more or less by accident and sold boxes of “ friction matches ” at Is 4d each. The idea had been anticipated as far hack as 1(530 by Godfrey Hawkwitz, who used phosphorus to light pieces of wood dipped in sulphur. Other inventions on the same linos continued to be made; but it was John Walker who bridged the gulf between scientific experiment and popular acceptance. During its hundred years the match has had many variations oi name. Walker’s' became known as “Congreves,” after Sir William Congreve, the inventor of the Congreve rocket. In 1870 a Dir Jones patented the •* Prometlieans ”; and a rival presently appeared under .what a paper of the time called “ the frightful name ” ni Lucifer matches. The safety match arrived from Sweden in lSo‘2. mid the progress of science brought the specialist varieties of vestas, fusees, and vosuvians. Of the century’s history of the match the most interesting episodes have been, in politics, the debacle of Lowe’s projected tax in 1871, when processions of ragged match-sellers marched through the streets of London; and, in economics, the “ phossy jaw ’’ agitation of the eighties. A minor incident was the demonstration of horror and protest when, coming hack to Rarliament one season, members found the match boxes in the House of Commons labelled “ This box is the property of the Office of Works-” They were speedily removed in favor of boxes which carried no inscription and conveyed no insinuation.