168 ON THE MANUFACTURE OF MATCHES IN NEW YORK. 



considering the very small amount of wood composing a single match. 

 The manufactories in New York pay monthly for lumber alone, to he 

 made into matches, from 500 dol. to 1,000 dol. each ; while the lumber 

 used in the construction of the packing cases, in which they are shipped? 

 and the boxes, in which they are packed in grosses, is almost as great. 

 The boxes containing a gross are made of butts of large logs, because the 

 parts thus cut off are generally refuse timber, and clearer of knots than 

 other lumber. 



The number of persons, of all ages, engaged in the making of matches 

 in the United States is not less than two thousand — about one-fourth of 

 whom work in New York ; the rest in Boston, Connecticut, Ohio, and Penn- 

 sylvania. Of course, the maj ority of them are children, from four years to 

 sixteen years of age. 



Matches are sent from this city to all parts of the world. The principal 

 foreign markets are Canada, the West India Islands, Mexico, Central and 

 South America, both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, Sandwich Islands, 

 California, Oregon, Australia, the various parts of the Mediterranean, and 

 the Chinese Empire. The matches are packed for shipping in tin cases, 

 which not only keeps them from the water, but also protects them from the 

 moisture of the sea atmosphere, which would soften and destroy the tips. 



Certain kinds of matches are sent exclusively to particular markets, and 

 persons not acquainted with these peculiarities, have experienced heavy 

 losses by sending the wrong sort. 



In California, none but the round splint match, put up in the round 

 wooden boxes, meet with a ready sale. The reasons for this are found in 

 the fact that matches put up in this way are much more convenient to 

 carry in the pocket and on journeys. The bottom of the box presents 

 a rough surface, always at hand, against which to rub the match ; and 

 when the box is exhausted, it forms a convenient receptacle for the traveller 

 or miner, in which to carry his little odds and ends, such as pins and 

 needles, and, in many cases, the dearly-procured object of all his toils, 

 his precious gold-dust. The large square splints are sent to the West 

 Indies ; the small round matches, in thin paper boxes, to Central and South 

 America ; while the same matches that find a ready sale in Cincinnati 

 and other western cities, will not bring half their cost in Boston or New 

 Orleans. 



The number of matches made and sold in the course of the year 

 amounts, in the aggregate, to about 4,733,501,760 matches, or 505,716 gross 

 of boxes, or 72,823,104 boxes of matches, which is nearly three boxes of 

 matches a year for every man, woman and child — white, red and black — in 

 the United States. 



There are a great many matches, besides, imported into this country 

 from Germany, which, owing to the light duty and the cheapness of 

 labour where they are made, are sold in New York at prices which enable 

 the foreign manufacturers to compete profitably with the American makers. 

 Manufacturers in the United States are obliged to pay as high a duty on 



