ONLY A MATCH. 683 



ONLY A MATCH. 



By C. FALKENHORST. 



IF one should count the matches that are used daily he would 

 arrive at an immense sum in the milliards, at least. To sup- 

 ply the immense demand for the little sticks which so quickly go 

 out in fire and flame, a great number of factories on either side of 

 the ocean are busy with steam and noisy machines ; while we 

 have become so indifferent that we see nothing special in the fire- 

 bearing splinters, and are vexed when one of them fails, or the 

 hissing head breaks off, or the flame goes out, leaving the wood 

 to glimmer. 



We shall really have to go among savages to learn to admire 

 the match. Take the white traveler in darkest Africa, in the 

 midst of naked negroes, who see a civilized man for the first time. 

 He carelessly brings out his matchbox to light his cigar. A 

 slight movement of the hand, and the blaze flickers ; the crowd 

 of black spectators, frightened, fall back and run away, crying, 

 " Witch ! witch ! " These negroes are really not savages. They 

 possess fire, by which they warm themselves, and with the help 

 of which they work metals, produce iron and forge it ; but they 

 still obtain fire in the primitive way, either by striking steel 

 against flint or in the tedious method of a ruder antiquity by 

 rubbing pieces of dry wood together, and not always with success. 

 But the white man produces his flame as if by magic in an 

 instant. 



In the beginning of this century chemists discovered a num- 

 ber of substances which took fire more easily than dry wood or 

 punk, and, as modern naturalists are mostly practical men, the 

 thought occurred to them to make these substances available for 

 the quicker production of fire. They found, for example, that 

 chlorate of potash, now much used as a gargle in throat diseases, 

 was decomposed and set fire to combustible substances as soon as 

 it came in contact with concentrated sulphuric acid. The first 

 practicable match was based upon this observation ; a stick was 

 covered at the end with a coating of sulphur, and over this was 

 spread a mass of gum and chlorate of potash. When the head of 

 the match was dipped in concentrated sulphuric acid, the chlorate 

 of potash detonated and set fire to the inflammable sulphur, which 

 imparted its flame to the wood. These were the dip matches, 

 which were introduced in 1812, and were very popular. The sul- 

 phuric acid was kept in vials, from the stoppers of which asbestus 

 threads hung down in the inside, and were thereby wet with the 

 acid. If one wanted fire, he drew out the asbestus thread and 

 pressed the head of the match upon it when the fire appeared. 



