MATCH INDUSTRY. It was nearly MO years after the discovery of phosphorus by an Arab, named Bechel, that it was found possible to obtain a light in a short time by the friction of phosphorus and sulphur. This discovery was made and first applied commercially in the lat ter part of the 17th century by Godfrey Hank witz, of London, and, although the feasibility of producing a substance which, with a little rub bing, would ignite, was at once demonstrated, and, although it was proven that such a sub stance would be of immense commercial value, yet it was nearly a century and a quarter before a friction match was invented and successfully put on the market. The method employed by Haukwitz consisted of rubbing small particles of phosphorus between folds of brown paper and the flame produced lighted a sulphur match, but, as the phosphorus at that time was costly and considered dangerous, the match was not a suc cess.
Among the earliest inventions was the (phos phorus bottle,* containing a piece of phos phorus, stirred about by a hot wire, in order to coat the bottle with oxide of phosphorus, and when a light was desired a sulphur match was thrust into the bottle and thus ignited. This (phosphorus bottle* was followed in 1805 by the match,* the invention of Chan cel, of Paris. These matches were, however, considered dangerous, and in 1809 a mixture of phosphorus and magnesia was invented by Derepos, which was designed to do away with the danger attendant upon the use of the others.
One of the first forms of matches used was the brimstone match, and this consisted of small strips of resinous or very dry pine wood dipped in melted sulphur and lighted by means of a spark dropped from a flint and steel. This brimstone match was in almost universal use, despite the fact of later inventions, till the first part of the 19th century, and even as late as 1825, but with the general awakening at that time in all branches of industry the same progress was manifest in the invention of matches and of more ingenious machinery for making them. The first invention along this line came in shape of the Boxes,* called the Eupyrions and Prometheans, the invention of a Mr. Jones of London. These
light boxes retailed at a very high price and were made of small sticks of dry wood tipped with a mixture of chlorate of potash and sul phur, which, when dipped into sulphuric acid, ignited. These were dangerous because of the acid and because of the liability of harm from the explosion when ignited and the cost was prohibitive to general use. This was followed in 1827 by the Congreve match, invented by a chemist, named Walker, of Stockton-on-Tees. This match was similar to the Light Box,)) but the mixture on the end con sisted of gum, chlorate of potash and sulphide of antimony, placed over a coat of sulphur. They were drawn between a fold of sandpaper to ignite them. These sold for a shilling per box, containing 84 matches. They did not be come generally used because they did not readily ignite and the fumes created by the burning substances were very offensive.
In 1833 the lucifer friction match, the pro genitor of the modern match, was put on the market and this differed materially from the at first being tipped substantially the same as the Congreve, but later having phosphorus as one of the ingre dients of the mixture. The manufacture of these phosphorus matches was commenced on a large scale in 1833 at Vienna, by an Austrian named Treschel, and gradually several factories began to produce matches of various kinds, Austria and southern Germany taking the lead in pro duction. Red or amorphous phosphorus was discovered by Prof. Anton von Schrotter, a German, in 1845, and was used as early as 1855 by Lundstrom, of Jon'coping, the first manufacturer of the well-known (safety-match.* In these matches the phosphorus is omitted from the composition placed on the tip of the match, but is placed on the side of the box, and thus the match will only ignite when rubbed on the box. On 24 Oct. 1836, Alonzo D. Phil lips, of Springfield, Mass., was granted the first patent on friction matches given in the United States.