ON THE MANUFACTURE OP MATCHES IN NEW YORK. 165 



which is a set of knives which score the block, with the grain, the exact 

 thickness of the match, while another knife passes through it and cuts 

 off the sticks as they are scored. So rapidly does this machine work, 

 that no less than twenty-two match-sticks are cut by each revolution ; two 

 hundred revolutions are made a minute, which amounts to 4,400 match- 

 sticks per minute, 264,000 per hour, 2,640,000 per working day of ten 

 hours, and the immense number of 821,040,000 per year. The match-sticks, 

 as they are cut, fall into a trough below, and are thence carried into large 

 bins where they are " gathered," as it is called — that is, they are disentangled 

 from the mass in which they are collected — an operation which is performed 

 by boys with great rapidity — and laid out in racks, which are measured to 

 contain a certain number. They are then tied in round bundles and 

 carried into another part of the building, where there are a large number of 

 children at work, some of them not more than five years of age. These 

 children untie the bundles and place, by very quick manipulations, each 

 match-stick in a groove which keeps it isolated in what is called a " slat ; ' 

 some dozen of these grooved " slats" filled with matches are screwed together 

 and form a " batch." From the sides of this batch the ends of the matches 

 protrude about an inch. The " batches" are then carried by boys to a room 

 where the ends are dipped into a brimstone- vat. This vat is over a hot coal 

 fire, and it requires some considerable experience on the part of the dipper to 

 keep the hot brimstone always of the same depth, because if the brimstone 

 should be too deep in the vat, the stick would receive too much of it, the 

 fumes of which, when the match should be burned, would be extremely 

 disagreeable. He first dips one side of the batch, then the other, when it is 

 carried into another room where it is again dipped into the phosphorus. 



The primary coating of sulphur cannot well be dispensed with, for the 

 inflammable compound burns too rapidly to set fire to the wood. The 

 flame produced by it is first transferred to the sulphur and then to the 

 wood. The original matches were made by mixing phosphorus with 

 mucilage, to which chlorate of potash was then added. The sulphured 

 wood was dipped in this. Sometimes the phosphorus was replaced by 

 sulphuret of antimony. The noise of this in flaming was objectionable, 

 and noiseless matches were then made by replacing the detonating action 

 of chlorate of potash for the slower combustion of nitrate and phosphorus. 

 The general principle conceived in the action of all these matches is, that 

 substances (as phosphorus) having a great affinity for oxygen, are mixed 

 with a large amount of it, condensed into a small space (as in nitrate or 

 chlorate of potash), so that the slightest cause is sufficient to effect the 

 combination. The peroxides of lead and manganese, which abound in 

 oxygen, are often mixed with the nitre ; they act in the same way when 

 they have reached a red heat. 



The preparation, which consists of chalk or Paris White, glue, and 

 other glutinous substances, mixed with phosphorus, is kept hot in a kettle, 

 under which enough heat is maintained to keep it fused. When the matches 

 are to be dipped, the preparation of phosphorus is taken from the kettle and 



