SCIENCE 
IS 
KNOWLEDGE, 
KNOWLEDGE 
IS 
POWER. 
A PRACTICAL JOURNAL OF 
HOME ARTS. 
Vol. V. 
NEW YORK, MARCH, 1882. 
No. 3. 
The Lucifer Match. 
OMMON and appa- 
rently simple as is 
the lucifer match, 
jKZj^^^A^^^^^ it is not half a cen- 
%> J^^r-iil^t^ tyj.y siliee it was in- 
vented, and strange 
to say the origina- 
tor is entirely un- 
known, although he 
has probably done 
as much to add to the happiness of the 
human race as any other inventor. 
Matches have been in use for hundreds 
of years, but it was only about the year 
1835 that a really serviceable match— one 
that could displace the old flint and 
steel— was brought forward. Two years 
before that, Faraday, the greatest chemist 
of his age, published a new edition of his 
book on Chemical Manipulation, and in 
that he advises the use of flint and steel, 
or the old "dipping match" as the best 
means of getting a light. We may, there- 
fore, safely conclude that a really good 
match was not known at that time. The 
following story about the origin of the 
match is now going the rounds of the 
press, but is evidently a mere story : 
" A famous chemist, Mr. Isaac Holden, 
on rising early one morning to pursue his 
studies in science, was exceedingly incom- 
moded by the difficult method of striking 
a light from flint and steel, and the idea 
occurred to him to use some explosive 
firework. When delivering a lecture 
shortly afterwards, he said that of course 
he knew, as other chemists did, the ex- 
plosive material that was necessary in 
order to procure instantaneous fire ; but 
it was very difficult to obtain a light on 
wood by that explosive, and the idea oc- 
curred to him to put sulphur upon the ex- 
plosive mixture, which he demonstrated. 
A person in the lecture room who knew a 
chemist in London wrote to him about it, 
and in a few days lucifer matches were 
issued." 
"Explosive fireworks" had been used 
for this purpose for a long time before the 
modern match was invented. The old 
" dipping " matches consisted of a wooden 
splint, the end being coated with sulphur 
and tipped with a mixture of chlorate of 
