Discussion of Industries 89 
MatcHes 
Wood for the production of matches and match splints must 
be easily worked and capable of producing a moderate flame 
and must also have the capacity of holding the dipping material 
well. Many types of machinery are used for match making. 
To produce the matches, the boxes into which they are packed 
and the labeling of boxes requires a very ingenious mechanism. 
There must be machines for cutting the lumber into strips and 
small blocks, for dipping the sticks, drying the matches, and 
packing and labeling the boxes. Some inventors have devoted 
the whole of their lives to the perfection of apparatus for the 
manufacture of matches. It is reported that the machine for 
filling the boxes with sticks alone took ten years’ time of one 
skilled inventor. 
The United States is the only country in the world which 
makes and uses a round mateh. For this purpose white pine 
is used in great quantities by large match factories in the 
northern portion of the State. This industry calls for 2-inch 
boards or deals of clear stock free from all defects, and it is 
largely shipped from Canada, the Lake States, and the far 
West. The soft wood of clear white pine is necessary for this 
process because the machines in common practice punch the 
sticks from blocks of the proper length. 
The square matches of the “safety” type, which are com- 
monly used throughout foreign countries, and to an increasing 
extent in the United States, are made by turning logs into 
veneer and then chopping the veneer into suitable sizes for the 
splints. Basswood and aspen are the species mainly employed, 
derived from Canada, New York, and Vermont. No aspen 
was reported in 1919. 
The subsequent process of placing the chemical tip on the 
splints is carried on in specialized factories, which also make 
up the boxes from veneer and paper. The United States pro- 
duces its own square matches to some extent but imports over 
5,000,000 gross of boxes annually from Scandinavia, Japan, 
and other foreign countries, where very many styles of matches 
