WHO INVENTED MATCHES?

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIII, Issue 210, 18 August 1933, Page 12

WHO INVENTED MATCHES?

AN ITALIAN’S CLAIM. ROME, July 6. Who invented matches? It appears tiiat several countries claim the honour. And now comes an Italian, Signor Cesare Segre, a citizen of Rome, to say that Samson Valobra, his grandfatlur, was the first man to invent matches of any sort or kind. flora of Jewish parents in Piedmont, in 17U9, Samson refused to study the law, and devoted his time to chemical experiments, inventing an excellent toilet soap which brought him in a small fortune. He was, however, a member of the Carbonari, a secret political socoiety, and after being expelled from Piedmont and Leghorn, took refuge in the Neopoliian kingdom, which the Bourbons reigned. He worked bard at chemistry and succeeded in producing a kind of match which consisted of pieces of wood, the ends of which had been treated with a preparation of chloride of lime. After being dipped in a solution of sulphuric acid, the matches could be lighted far quicker than the then fashionable flint and tinder. They found favour with the Neapolitans and Ssimsoa was making money fast when the Bourbons, discovering his liberal opinions, not only ceased buying matches for the royal palace, but refused to grant him a license for making them. After a long struggle for his rights, Samson ceded his factory to ■ certain

Entel, whose political opinions were not suspect. Signor Segre claims that the bill of transfer of the factory, which was at Santa Lucia, contains a clause in which the new owner admits Ramson to be the inventor of the matches. He received a good sum for his property, but Entel, in spite of his declaration, was looked on as the man who invented matches.