410 ON THE UTILIZATION OP WASTE. 



with sugar, and I place a little of it on a plate. I will not put too much 

 because of the fumes. I now dip this rod in sulphuric acid so as to 

 get a little on the end of it, and with this I touch the mixture of 

 chlorate of potash and sugar. The sulphuric acid liberates the chloric 

 acid, which gives oxygen to the sugar ; the sugar burns and an instanta- 

 neous light is obtained in this way. Captain Manby used this process 

 for firing off his safety mortars, and thus drew considerable attention to 

 this mode of obtaining a light. An application of this chlorate of 

 potash and sulphuric acid to match-making was now made. There were 

 two applications : one was older than the other. The method which 

 was first introduced consisted of having a little bottle of asbestos. Here 

 is one of the old kind, which many of us can recollect. This asbestos is 

 moistened with oil of vitriol, and the chlorate of potash and sugar, 

 instead of being separate, as I showed you there, are put upon the end 

 of the match, and you dip it in the sulphuric acid, and the chlorate of 

 potash and sugar mixture gets ignited, and the light is got in that way. 

 Well, that was the first application of the old experiment of chlorate of 

 potash and sugar. Then there was another. I am sorry to say that I 

 have only one or two of these ancient matches left, and they will soon 

 be gone altogether. The plan was to take the chlorate of potash and 

 sugar, and wrap it in a piece of paper, and to have the sulphuric acid 

 sealed up in a little glass globule inside the mixture. The mode of 

 using it was, if you had a pair of pincers at hand, to break the globule 

 with them, and so ignite the match ; but if you had not a pair of 

 pincers in readiness, you did it between your teeth ; and if you were 

 very clever, you might do it without getting -the sulphuric acid into 

 your mouth, or burning it with the explosion. This match had a great 

 objection — that chlorate of potash and sugar always go off violently, and 

 the sulphuric acid in the globule, although in small quantity, was 

 spirted over the dress, and destroyed the dress whenever it came in 

 contact with it. 



The first friction-match was introduced in 1832. The mode in which 

 these friction-matches are made, many of my hearers who lived in 1832 

 will recollect. I have a lively recollection of it. The mode was this 

 — sulphide of antimony was mixed with chlorate of potash. Here 

 the sulphide of antimony gave sulphur, just as the sugar gave, 

 a combustible to the chloride of potash. This was put upon 

 the end of a piece of wood ; and the friction was produced by 

 drawing this through a piece of sand-paper. I have there some 

 antique matches of all kinds, which are now very valuable because they 

 are very difficult to obtain. My experience as a boy with regard to 

 these friction-matches was that with considerable adroitness you might 

 get a light after pulling off the ends of half a box ; and when it did 

 come, it came with such violence and explosion that it projected a 

 considerable quantity of the ignited matter over the hands and burnt 



