Ap7'd 13, 1876J 



NATURE 



469 



sentative of our hallux or great toe, is turned backwards 

 and articulates with a small distinct bone. 



The heart has four perfectly distinct chambers, so that 

 the pure blood from the lungs, and the impure blood from 

 the rest of the body, are kept quite separate. There is a 

 single aorta which turns to the right side after leaving the 

 heart. 



{To be continued,') 



ON SAFETY MATCHES 



'T'HE fact has been known during some years past that 

 -*■ the so-called safety matches, which are warranted to 

 ignite " only on the box," can be fired by being rubbed 

 on glass, and as Mr. Preece recently pointed out (Nature, 

 vol. xiii. p, 208}, on ebonite. I find that they can be ignited 

 by friction against ivory (I used an ivory paper-knife), steel 

 (a steel spatula, somewhat worn), zinc, copper, marble with 

 the polish worn off, and a freshly-cleaved surface of slate. 

 The match (or two matches together, for the sake of 

 strength) should be held near the tipped end, and then 

 be rubbed with strong friction, and with a long sweep upon 

 the solid surface. From two to twelve such sweeps may 

 be required before the match ignites, and the result seems 

 to be due to the conversion of mechanical work into heat 

 sufficient to fire the paste at the end of the match, which, 

 I suppose, consists mainly of potassic chlorate and sul- 

 phide of antimony. 



After a few rubs the match begins to crackle, and then 

 suddenly bursts into flame. A similar result may be 

 obtained by grinding the chlorate in a mortar with a 

 little sulphur or sulphide. 



The readiness with which the match ignites by friction 

 depends greatly on the nature of the surface. Lead is 

 too soft, and tin too smooth. The metals produced by 

 rolling have a sort of skin on the surface, over which the 

 match glides without sufficient friction, but if the surface 

 of zinc be rubbed with sand-paper or with a fine file, it 

 becomes active in firing the match. I noticed that the 

 poUsh of my ivory paper-knife became worn before it 

 acted welL Nor is it very easy to fire the match on glass. 

 A long sweep repeated about a dozen times with con- 

 siderable pressure seems to be necessarj-. The two 

 specimens of sheet copper used by me have a sort of 

 grain which is favourable to the success of the experi- 

 ment. The copper acted equally well whether the surface 

 was dirty or cleaned with dilute sulphuric acid. After 

 rubbing a match ten or twelve times on zinc, without 

 effect, the same match rubbed on copper immediately 

 took fire. 



In the case of slate, lead, tin, and some other surfaces, 

 the composition on the match acts as a polish, and thus 

 renders it unfit for ignition. On the other hand, a finely- 

 cut file removes the composition from the end of the 

 match without igniting it. 



I have no doubt that many other surfaces might be 

 found on which the safety matches would ignite with 

 greater or less difficulty. Notwithstanding this, the match 

 IS still a safety match, although it does not comply with 

 the conditions asserted twice over on the box. It does 

 not ignite readily on any of the surfaces pointed out except 

 copper and marble, but it does ignite with wonderful 

 facihty when rubbed against the side of the box, an 

 invention so ingenious that a few words of its history 

 may not be out of place here. 



About the year 1850 a gentleman entered the laboratory 

 of Kmg's College, London, and drew from his waistcoat 

 pocket a fragment of a rough-looking red sohd, and 

 placmg it in the hands of Prof. Miller, asked him if he 

 knew what it was. It was handed round among those 

 present, but no one had the slightest idea as to its 

 nature, when, to the astonishment of every one, the 

 gentleman said, " It is phosphorus— amorphous phos- 

 !»orus, discovered by me, Herr Schrotter, of Vienna." 



Up to this time, and indeed for some years later, per- 

 sons engaged in the manufacture of lucifers were subject 

 to a terrible disease, known in the London hospitals as 

 " the jaw disease ;" necrosis of the lower jaw induced by 

 constantly inhaling the fumes of phosphorus acid escaping 

 from the phosphorus of the paste with which the 

 matches were tipped. 



Ordinary matches made with phosphorus were, during 

 many years, dangerous contrivances. They were lumi- 

 nous in the dark, liable to ignition on a warm mantel- 

 piece, poisonous; children have been killed by using them 

 as playthings ; and, moreover, they absorbed moisture, 

 and became useless by age. 



But the chief inducement in getting rid of ordinary 

 phosphorus and substituting the new variety was to put 

 an end, as far as possible, to the jaw disease. The red, 

 or amorphous phosphorus, gave off no fumes, had no 

 smell, was not poisonous, and the matches made with it 

 were not luminous in the dark ; they did not fire on a 

 warm mantelpiece, did not contract damp, and would 

 keep for any length of time. A manufacturer, in 1851, 

 sent me several samples of matches made with red phos- 

 phorus. I found some of these matches the other day, 

 and they were as active, after twenty-five years, as 

 at first. 



But here Avas a difficulty. When the red phosphorus is 

 brought into contact with potassic chlorate a slight touch 

 is sufficient to produce an explosion, in which the red 

 phosphorus reassumes its ordinary condition. Many 

 attempts were made to form a paste, and many accidents 

 and some deaths occurred in consequence. Prizes and 

 rewards were offered by manufacturers and others for a 

 safe paste, or for some means of using the red instead of 

 the ordinary phosphorus, but without success, so that the 

 patent for the manufacture of red phosphorus, which wiis 

 secured by Mr. Albright, of Birmingham, in 1851, threat- 

 ened to be of but little value. 



At length the happy idea occurred to a Swedish manu- 

 facturer not to attempt to make a paste at all with the red 

 phosphorus, but to make the consumer bring the essen- 

 tial ingredients together in the act of igniting the match. 



Mr. Preece's suggestion that the ignition of the matches 

 is due to electricity, may be dismissed in the face of the 

 following experiment : — Place a few grains of red phos- 

 phorus on a hard surface together with some powder or a 

 crystal of potassic chlorate, when a gentle tap will cause 

 them to burst into a flame. C. Tomlinson 



NOTES FROM SIBERIA 



n^ HE following Siberian notes are furnished me by a 

 -*• Polish gentleman resident at Irkutsk. The dates 

 mentioned foUow the Old System, as in Russia, and are 

 twelve days behind our own dates. The letter is dated 

 the loth of February. My informant says : — 



" Some time ago Mr. Czckanofski returned from his 

 second expedition to the most northern parts of Siberia 

 by the Olensk River. He went as far as its mouth, and 

 the extraordinarily warm autumn gave him the opportu- 

 nity to make ver>- interesting explorations. Till the 

 month of September there was no frost nor snow, and 

 the sea not frozen. The same is reported by Mr. Neu- 

 mann, who returned lately from the Behring Strait. It 

 may be that these exceptional climatical conditions 

 allowed also Mr. Nordenskjold's entering the mouth of 

 the Jenessei. The exploration in the Achinsk country of 

 a cavern situated now some thirty fathoms above the bed of 

 the river gave to Mr. Tskersky ^ a fine collection of well- 

 conserved fossils of extinct species. Mr. Tskersky occu- 

 pies himself now with the description of the Tunka Alps, 

 which he believes to be the former boundar)' of LsJce 

 Baikal, as he found there the fossils of the crab and 



« The Curator of the Museum at Irkutdc.— G. F. 



