408 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1890. 



increasing proportions. Electricity, however, seems destined to limit 

 the use of matches as it does other methods of illumination. The use 

 of matches and of gas increases perhaps in a greater ratio than the 

 spread of the electric light, so that it will be a long conflict between 

 them for supremacy. 



The manufacture of splints in great quantities began with the inven- 

 tion of Beuben Partridge's splint-cutting machine. Previouslj r matches 

 had been split by hand by raeaus of a collection of blades. Block or 

 slab matches, common 20 years ago, were cut with a tool in such a way 

 as to leave the splints in a bunch, attached together at some distance 

 above the lower ends.* The whole bunch was dipped in sulphur-chlo- 

 rate composition and the matches could be separated at will. Often 

 the whole bunch took fire upon the separation of a single match, de- 

 stroying them almost instantly. Modern splints are cut and forced 

 through dies to give them a round shape. 



At present, splint cutting is a separate industry; the splints are 

 sold by the hogshead at the match factories, and one machine will cut 

 ten millions a day. 



V.— OPTICAL METHODS. 



The powers of the lens and the hollow mirror have been known for 

 ages by the civilized nations around the Mediterranean. In the classics 

 of Greece and Borne there are allusions to the employment of mirrors 

 and lenses for producing fire.t Wherever plane mirrors were known, 

 probably concave focusing mirrors had been discovered. Among the 

 several ways of producing "pure" fire the mirror and lens presented 

 a worthy method to those ancient cultured nations possessing instru- 

 ments for focusing light. It can scarcely be said that this was a wide- 

 spread and popular plan for producing fire, but probably was a thing 

 known to priests and scientific men of the day, and viewed as a mys- 

 tery or curiosity. 



The writer has seen hunters use the " burning glass" to light pipe 

 or fire, and has heard of many cases where it was brought into requi- 

 sition in the absence of matches, the object glass of a telescope often 

 furnishing the lens. However, this method was very limited, and was 

 pursued in defiance of " better light." 



VI.— ELECTRICAL METHODS. 



Up to 10 years ago scarcely anything had been accomplished toward 

 applying this new and rapidly widening feature of our era to the com- 

 munication of a spark for starting a light. Strangely enough, Volta 



* See Fig. 13. 



t M. H. Morgan. De Ignis Eliciendi Modis Apud Autiqnos. Harvard Studies in 

 Classical Philology, Vol. i, pp. 1-114. This is a complete presentation and discussion 

 of what the classics preserve with regard to the methods of making iire among the 

 ancients. 



