THE STORY OF THE MATCH.

Rodney and Otamatea Times, Waitemata and Kaipara Gazette, 15 May 1912, Page 7

THE STORY OF THE MATCH.

It is hard for us to even imagine the days when there were no matches. Just think of getting up on a winter morning" and having no means of lighting the candle or the kitchen fire, except flint, steel, and tinder. Yet those days are not so very long ago. There are people »stil] living who are old enough to remember them, and to,know what it was to be forced to trudge off through the snow to a neighbor's house to get a supply of live coals. In those days every precaution was taken to "bury" the fire overnight, so that there would be live coals in the morning, which, by the aid of the bellows, could be blown into active flame.

The two ways of getting fire before the invention of the lucifer were by striking a spark with flint and steel and catching it on a bit of tinder made of scorched linen, or by flashing a little powder in the pan of an old flint-lock gun.

The next step on the way to more -easily getting a light was when some ingenious person invented strips of wood dipped in sulphur, which caught fire more readily than tinder, and were more handy to carry about.

But these, of course, would not strike. The first real match was the so-called oxy-muriate. The tip was coated with a mixture of chlorate of potash', gum, and sugar. These were sold in small boxes made with two compartments, in one of which was fitted a small bottle containing asbestos soaked in sulphuric acid. When a match was dipped in the acid, it would take fire. These boxes sold at half a crown apiece, and were luxuries for the wealthy only.

It was about 1827 that the first real match arrived on the scene. These had sulphide of antimony mixed with the chlorate of potash, and were called "Congreves," because, like the rocket of that name, they made so much noise in lighting- They were put up in boxes of about eighty, together with a piece of glass-paper for striking them, and were priced at a shilling a box.

The common friction match was invented about 1835. It owes its superiority over the old-fashioned matches to the phosphorus contained in its head. To-day the ordinary recipe for making the preparation which coats the head of the match is half^part by weight of common phosphorus, four parts chlorate of potash, two of glue, one of whiting, and four of the finely powdered glass.

Match making used to be one of the most deadly industries, for the workers were poisoned by the phosphorus, andLthe fumes used to give them necrosis, or decay of the bones of the jaw. But owing to the much smaller quantity of phosphorus now used in match manufacture, and the better ventilation of the factories, the disease has become rare, and it never occurs at all where the red phosphorus is used instead of the common. There are firms whose output is 1,500*000 matches for every working day.

To wish for anything that is unattainable is worthless.

Do not chide your son for wanting, the earth, but rather encoufcage him in his desire. Only impress it firmly ojflf his mind that h© must go out and get it for himself.