instituted with Lucifer Matches and others ignited by friction. 357 



English Matches. 



General constituents. 

 Ordinary phosphorus. 

 Chlorate of potassa, and bind- 

 ing material (gum, glue, &c.) . 



Additional constituents, varying in 

 matches of different manufacture. 



Ultramarine. 



Prussian blue. 



Grey sulphide of antimony, red 



lead, glass (large quantity). 

 Prussian blue, glass (large 



quantity) . 

 Sesquioxide of iron. 



Foreign Matches. 



General constituents. 



Ordinary phosphorus. 

 Binding material (gum, glue, 



or resin 



Other constituents, varying in 

 different matches. 



Nitrate of potassa, glass. 



Nitrate of lead only. 



Nitrate of lead, bin oxideof lead, 



and vermilion. 

 Nitrate of lead, red lead. 

 Nitrate of lead, red lead, and 



litharge. 



The matches of several extensive English manufacturers were 

 found to be prepared with an igniting composition containing 

 both ordinary and amorphous phosphorus, the latter being em- 

 ployed in some instances in considerable quantity, and bearing 

 in others only a very small proportion to the ordinary phosphorus 

 contained in the mixture. Golden sulphide of antimony and 

 powdered glass were found in all the igniting compositions of this 

 class, and a small proportion of free sulphur was contained in 

 several of them. 



III. The Congreve and Vesta matches of English manufacture 

 which are tipped with compositions containing no phosphorus 

 whatever, are unquestionably great improvements upon the earlier 

 continental matches of this class. They are inflamed with ease 

 and certainty when pressed over the amorphous phosphorus rubber 

 on the box ; and the latter does not rapidly deteriorate from the 

 effects of atmospheric moisture upon it, as was formerly the case. 

 I have found these matches as readily ignitable by the phos- 

 phorus rubber after the latter had been kept in a moist atmo- 

 sphere for several months, as they were when freshly purchased*. 



* The very perfect manner in which mixtures containing amorphous 

 phosphorus are protected from the effects of moisture under the most severe 

 conditions, by means of shell-lac, has been exemplified most strikingly in the 

 case of the so-called " detonators " in the fuses for ordnance, constructed by 

 Sir William Armstrong. A proportion of powdered shell-lac is added to the 



