164 ON THE MANUFACTURE OP MATCHES IN NEW YORK. 



"believe, was what were called " phosphorus boxes." These were long 

 cylindrical cases, containing at one end some fifty wooden matches tipped 

 with an inflammable preparation, which, when a light was wanted, were 

 dipped into a small bottle of phosphorus in the other end of the box. 

 These were, however, expensive, and never got into general use. 



The first introduction of friction matches into the United States, was 

 in the year 1836. They were, however, very different from those now in 

 common use. They were called " lucifers," and were at first used exclu- 

 sively as cigar lighters. This match consisted of a preparation of phos- 

 phorus, upon a narrow strip of brown paper, saturated with saltpetre, and 

 iire was obtained by drawing it briskly between two pieces of thick sand- 

 paper. These matches did not blaze, but burned slowly like a fusee. 

 Within a short time after, such improvements were made as to render 

 them capable of producing a flame, but as they were all imported from 

 Europe, they were too expensive for general use, and the old tinder-box 

 still held its own. 



American ingenuity, however, soon set itself to work to discover how 

 this important improvement in the means of obtaining fire could be made 

 of general service, and it was not long before a shrewd Yankee, by the 

 name of Phillips, took out a patent for the " combination of chalk and other 

 earthy substances, with glutin and phosphorus," in the preparation of 

 matches. In a very short time, too, the mechanical skill of the country 

 was taxed to produce such machinery as should be able to make an article 

 destined for such universal use as rapidly and cheaply as possible. ' This 

 resulted in the invention of various machines, all tending to the same 

 result, and in less than a year after the first introduction of foreign lucifer 

 matches, a better and more useful article was in general use through the 

 country at less than a third of the price at which the imported matches 

 were sold. 



The manufacture of matches now gives employment to a large number 

 of persons in almost every city in North America, and matches are 

 exported from thence to the farthermost ends of the earth. 



The rapidity with which these useful articles are made is really 

 astonishing, and the machinery is among the most ingenious ever invented. 

 Few who draw a match across some rough surface, and, after obtaining a 

 light, forget the means which produced it, know that each match passes 

 through no less than eight different hands before it is fit for use, or that a 

 box which contains matches, passes through a like number of hands, so 

 that sixteen different persons are employed in making up a box of matches. 



The wood used for matches was formerly obtained from old ship-spars ; 

 but it was found that the destruction of tools used in cutting it, from 

 contact with the number of nails, spikes, &c, which these spars contained, 

 made the use of this timber more expensive than new lumber, and conse- 

 quently none but the best clear three-inch white pine-joist is now used. 

 This is cut into blocks by a circular saw, each block being just twice the 

 breadth of the length of a match. This block is placed in a box, beneath 



