WHO INVENTED THE MATCH?

Evening Star, Issue 19893, 15 June 1928, Page 11

WHO INVENTED THE MATCH?

FIRE-MAKING THROUGH THE CENTURIES In Fairfield road, Bow, London,, E., there is a vastly interesting but. littleknown museum devoted entirely to the story of man’s struggles down the ages to preserve to himself those most blessed gifts of the gods—fire and light. In many thousands of exhibits tho tale is graphically told, and Mossrs Bryant and May, in whoso offices the museum is to be found, have been at pains to present the collection in strict chronological order and logical array. It is said to be tho most complete collection of its kind in tho world, a. boast that no one who had seen it would deny. For many years a private collector, Mr Bid well, now over eighty, industriously assembled most of the exhibits; others have been added, other collections embraced, until now the detailed catalogue, prepared by MiMiller Christy, au authority on the history of fire-making appliances, already comprises over 250 pages! PRIMITIVE FIRE-MAKING. In the showcases ranged round the largo and airy gallery you observe the gradual climb of our early ancestors from the wood-friction methods as seen in the laborious fiic-drills, fire-saws, and fire-ploughs which were _ probably the earliest instruments devised by primitive man, to tho flint-and-pyrites method that marked the Stone and Bronze Ages. This latter consisted of obtaining sparks which lighted tinder by striking a nodule of the common mineral iron pyrites with a pointed flake of flint. This method is still employed by certain Eskimo tribes. ’ Tho flint-and-pyrites method waned when, about 3,000 years ago, mau discovered tho art of smelting iron, a progression that resulted in the more ardent ilint-and-steel method which persisted, in slowly improving forms,- up to and around tho year 1835, and, in fact, is still practised by South European peasants and many semi-civilised peoples. Steel and flint have often been found in burial mounds clasped in tho hand of a dead warrior ready for immediate use to lighten his way when ho awakes in the world beyond. THE TINDER-BOX ERA.

TJio museum shows how packed were the 3,000 years preceding the arrival of the “ instantaneous match” we know to-day with the ingenious efforts of inventors o the world. the flint and steel were basic necessities in all such designs, the variety of form and materials was unlimited. Tinderboxes of wood, horn, metal, and bone are shown by the score; fire-steels of every pattern, some ■ beautifully wrought, and in the case of Eastern specimens, richly adorned with jewels and engravingtinder-boxes for the pocket as small as snuff-boxes and as beautifully carved; tinder-bags and pouches for early smokers; tinderpistols, often work of famous gunsmiths (there are 100 of these collected in a number of countries; they were extensively used in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries): burning_lenses, in some cases inserted in the lid of a tin of tobacco —these are representatives of the exhibits of tho “Tinderbox Era.” Mechanical-minded wizards of that period produced many ingenious devices, if somewhat a la Heath Robinson in conception, such was tho tinder box pistol that was fired by an alarm clock. The alarm fired the pistol and ignited a pinch of gunpower, which in turn lighted a candle that had sprung forth, inside the box! Another was intended for sluggards. Patented in 1824, it consisted of a piece of string passing over a pulley attached to the stopper of an acid bottle. As you lay in bed you pulled the string lifting tho stopper, which applied a spot of acid to a crude sulphur match, which rotated on a wheel until it came next to the wick of a spirit lamp, which, if everything went according to plan, gave you your light! THE FIRST MATCH. This acid device, or “portable fire box,” as it is called, was one of tho earliest forms of “instantaneous lights,” and was invented in Italy in 1786. Similar to it was the “Promethean match,” patented by Samuel Jones, of the Strand, in 1828. A minute quantity of sulphuric acid sealed in a tiny glass vesicle, surrounded by a compound of chlorate of potash, was enclosed in a paper spill. When the glass vesicle was broken either by the hammer supplied with the “ match,” or with the teeth, the acid inflamed the potash and ignited the paper. Despite the many claimants, the honour of inventing tho first real “ friction match ” of the kind with which we are familiar to-day belongs to John Walker, a Stockton-on-Tees chemist. In 1826 he was selling his friction lights for a shilling for a hundred. and two pence for the box! The match was pressed between the fingers in a piece of sandpaper. By 1834 the “ lucifers ” and “ congroves,” which were the first phosphorus matches, were in common use, to be followed later by “ fnzees,” “vestas.” “ vesuvians,” and “safeties.” They had many disadvantages. A strong sun or a sudden blow would ho liable to ignite tho box. More than one label in tho museum warned purchasers that, owing to the poisonous fumes, uo one with weak lungs should strike tho matches. The harmless red phosphorus of modern “strike anywhere” matches arrived in 1898, though the noxious yellow phosphorus, with its peril to worker and consumer, was not legally banned until 1910. PICTORIAL LABELS. The museum also contains scores of match box labels of different countries that must surely bo unique. Foreign covers are shown with famous “beauties ” reproduced upon them in gaudy colours; others bear bird arid flower designs; while some, like that showing the meeting of Dr Livingstone and Stanley, suggest that match boxes once supplied belated pictorial news to patrons. If written application is made beforehand to the company, tho exhibits may bo seen free of charge.