FIEE AS AN AGENT IN HUMAN CULTUEE 125 



Credit for tlie first primitive match is claimed in several Euro- 

 pean countries. This is the history of many important inventions 

 at the time of their inception, when the minds of numerous investi- 

 gators are independently focussed on the same problem. In reality 

 John Walker worked for the common good and not for personal or 

 racial credit. Nevertheless, a record of sales entered in a notebook of 

 the date shows that John Walker sold matches of his invention 

 and make in 1827."- 



Phosphorus, which was discovered by Brand about 1673, was 

 experimented wnth in the line of fire producing with little success. 

 One ot the earliest methods for its utilization was to rub a bit of it 

 betM^een two folds of coarse paper and to allow the spark of fire thus 

 produced to fall upon a " spunk." These clumsy devices led to noth- 

 ing of importance, and phosphorus was not used in a practical 

 match until 1833. 



The real key to the match was the discovery by Bertholet, the 

 great French chemist, about 1800, of "the principle of the oxidation 

 of combustible bodies by chlorates in the presence of strong acids." 

 This was the idea adopted in Chancel's instantaneous light box men- 

 tioned. About 1830 the first phosphorus or parlor match, in which 

 red phosphorus with binding and coloring material was used, ap- 

 peared commercially in Austria and Germany. In 1855 safety 

 matches were invented in Sweden. 



Several interesting devices for fire making appeared in the forma- 

 tive period of the match. In 1780 Volta demonstrated an apparatus 

 in which hydrogen gas was ignited by the electric spark. An appa- 

 ratus in which hydrogen was ignited by du'ecting a jet of the gas 

 against spongy platinum came into use in 1823. 



"Before lucifer matches came fully into use a chemical apparatus 

 known in Germany as Dobereiner was used to a considerable extent 

 for obtaining. a light. It consists of a cylindrical glass jar 4 inches 

 in diameter, 6 inches high, with a flat trap cover, from the center of 

 which hangs down a glass bell 2 inches in diameter and 43^ inches 

 long, reaching down almost to the bottom of the jar. Inside this 

 bell are suspended half a dozen square pieces of zinc with holes in 

 them, so that they can be threaded on an iron wire. On top of the 

 cover is a jet and stop cock opening out of the bell, and in front of 

 it a small chamber containing a bit of spongy platina. The jar is 

 filled with dilute sulphuric acid, which acting on the zinc, generates 

 hydrogen gas. When the gas is allowed to play upon the ])latina it 

 renders it incandescent and a light can be obtained by applying a 

 spill." "^ 



« Sci. Amer., Apr. 20, 1895, p. 261. 



ej. R. Allen. Proe. Roy. Soc. Antiq. Scot., 1879-80. p. 253. 



