356 Mr. F. A. Abel on some results of Experiments 



Composition of Matches of different classes. 



Thirty-five different kinds of matches were examined and ex- 

 perimented with; these included, besides ordinary lucifer or 

 Congreve matches, varieties of wax or Vesta matches, of cigar 

 lights (Fusees, Vesuvians,&c), and of so-called "safety matches." 



The following points were noted with reference to the nature 

 of the Congreve and Vesta matches. 



I. The inflammable coating applied to the wooden matches 

 (beneath the igniting composition) was sulphur, with very few 

 exceptions. In two instances the tips had been soaked in or 

 coated with fatty matter (apparently stearic acid) ; in two others, 

 paraffin was employed as the inflammable coating ; and the ends 

 of the round Austrian matches (Pollak and Hermann and Gabriel) 

 were found to have a coating of resin applied over the igniting 

 composition and on the match some little distance beyond — thus 

 serving the double purpose of protecting the composition from 

 the effects of moisture, and rendering the wood in proximity to 

 the former more inflammable. In a variety of Congreve match of 

 French manufacture, the sulphur coating is similarly applied over 

 the composition, and a perfectly waterproof, though somewhat 

 difficultly ignitable match is thus produced. 



II. The igniting compositions of the Congreve and Vesta 

 matches present considerable variations in their characters. The 

 following are the principal points noted in their analytical ex- 

 amination. 



Those of all the matches of English manufacture examined 

 were found to contain chlorate of potassa. It appears, indeed, 

 that the employment of this salt in place of nitrate of potassa 

 has become universal in England. On the other hand, not one 

 description of the foreign matches examined was found to be pre- 

 pared with chlorate of potassa. Some German matches of infe- 

 rior make contained nitrate of potassa; but the majority of German 

 and all the Swedish matches examined contained nitrate of lead 

 as the oxidizing agent, mixed with ordinary phosphorus, alone or 

 in addition to red lead, litharge, or vermilion. One description 

 of German match contained binoxide of lead with nitrate of lead, 

 the two having probably been prepared as a mixture by the action 

 of nitric acid upon red lead. 



By far the larger proportion of matches are still prepared with 

 ordinary phosphorus ; sulphide of antimony and powdered glass 

 are very general additional constituents of the igniting composi- 

 tion. The following statements show the principal variations in 

 the nature of the igniting materials prepared with ordinary 

 phosphorus : — 



