July 8, 1871.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
21 
MATCHES. 
BY B. S. rUOCTOPv. 
O Lucifer, Low art tLou fallen ! 
Only one penny per box ! 
Tlie history of the means of getting a light is full 
of interest in whatever aspect it be viewed ; perhaps 
more interesting to pharmacists than to ordinary 
mortals, seeing how intimately each step in advance 
is associated with the progress of chemical and phy¬ 
sical discovery; how much the match trade of the 
last forty years has been connected with the trade of 
the'chemist and the part which has been taken in 
the development of the same by men well known 
amongst us. Leaving to our contemporaries the 
treatment of this subject in its commercial and me¬ 
chanical aspects, we propose to sketch briefly the 
chemical history of the art of kin dling a flame, from 
the time when old women were given to making 
matches to the present day, when the lads and lasses 
have a good deal of the work in their own hands. 
When the first fire was lighted, and who lit it, are 
questions over which physics and divinity might 
quarrel without coming to a conclusion; but looking 
to nations (if our modesty will permit us) which are 
too young in civilization to wear any clothes, we 
commonly hear of their fires being ignited by rub¬ 
bing two dry sticks together till the heat of fric¬ 
tion produced fire. The mode of rubbing which is 
capable of producing sufficient of that “ mode of mo¬ 
tion ” which is known as heat, is difficult of acquire¬ 
ment ; and though most of us have tried the experi¬ 
ment in our school days, he was thought very suc¬ 
cessful who could produce smoke enough to make 
his eyes water; it is doubtful whether success 
might have rewarded our efforts, even had we at¬ 
tended to Pliny’s recommendation, “rub the wood of 
the ivy with that of the laurel,” so much do we lose 
the arts of former times when modern inventions 
enable us to attain our ends with less labour. These 
dry frictions were only slowly displaced by the use of! 
the flint and steel, which depend upon the same phy- 
sical principle. A small particle of a hard metal 
being struck off from the mass by the edge of a stone 
harder than itself, the particle was always hot, fre¬ 
quently hot enough to enter into active combustion; 
this, however, produced a short-lived spark, which 
was only available if received upon some substance 
very readily ignited and of small conducting power, 
the material most approved for this purpose being 
tinder, a charcoal produced by the imperfect com¬ 
bustion of old linen. When the young spark was 
well received he seldom failed to kindle a match— 
the matches for this purpose being slips of wood, 
ten times as large as the lucifers of the present day, 
pointed at one or both ends and dipped in sulphur. 
The tinder-box, with its flint and steel, though a 
great advance upon the friction woods of the early 
ages, was often troublesome, especially in damp 
weather, when the tinder absorbed moisture and was 
slow to ignite. Substitutes for it were constantly 
sought, but for a century and a half the numerous 
inventions failed to displace the tinder-box from its 
post on the kitchen mantelshelf. 
Phosphorus, which was discovered about two 
hundred years ago, kindled the hopes of the fire- 
seekers, but for a long time it did not kindle much 
else, for it was very expensive and very dangerous 
to handle. So lately as fifty years ago nothing else 
was known in practice but flint and steel, phosphorus 
Third Series, No. 54. 
matches not being introduced commercially till 1834, 
and being prohibited in several of the German States 
on account of their danger up to the year 1840 ; but 
during the time phosphorus was in abeyance, much 
was done with other materials. 
Doebereiner, and his wonderful lamp, may claim 
our first notice. The lamp consisted of a bell- 
glass immersed in sulphuric acid, and having a 
piece of zinc suspended in it, so that it generated 
hydrogen, until the accumulated gas having dis¬ 
placed the acid stopped further action. The bell 
was fitted with a cock and a piece of spongy plati¬ 
num, the latter being usually attached to a little 
piece of mechanism, by which it was brought in 
front of the cock at the moment the gas was turned 
on; the gas was thus ignited, and in turn lighted a 
candle placed in front of it. 
Doebereiner’s lamp stands quite apart from the 
other fire-producing contrivances. It depends upon 
the power possessed in a small degree by many 
bodies, but in an eminent degree by platinum, of so 
condensing certain “gases upon its surface as to 
enable them to exercise their chemical affinities 
much more energetically than in the free or uncon¬ 
densed state, and depends upon this property being 
so much exalted by the reduction of the platinum to 
a spongy condition, that it becomes incandescent 
when exposed to a mixture of hydrogen and air. 
The pyropliori, which were made by heating tar¬ 
trate of lead, or a mixture of potash, alum and 
organic matter, in close vessels till they ceased to 
give off inflammable gases, depended also for their 
fire generation upon a finely divided metal mixed 
with carbon; but in this case the metal had not a 
mechanical but a chemical affinity for oxygen, and 
as soon as exposed to the air the absorption of oxy¬ 
gen was so rapid as to produce a smouldering com¬ 
bustion. 
Phosphorus bottles, which were in vogue during 
the early days of phosphorus, were too dangerous, 
both in their production and use, to be much more 
than philosophical toys. They were made by melt¬ 
ing together phosphorus and sulphur in a bottle 
(which it is said was sometimes blown to pieces in 
the operation), the sulphide of phosphorus thus 
produced being readily ignited by friction. The light 
was obtained by dipping a splinter of wood into the 
compound, and thus lifting out sufficient to produce 
the desired fire by rubbing upon any convenient 
surface; or a bottle, when lined with phosphorus 
alone, or mixed with one-fourth of wax, was capable 
of igniting a common sulphur match, if rubbed upon 
its inner surface. 
{To be co ntinued.) _ 
British Spirits.—An annual return shows that in 
the year 1870 30,220,268 gallons of proof spirits were 
distilled in the United Kingdom: 7,479,422 gallons in 
England, 14,483,744 gallons in Scotland (nearly half the 
production of the United Kingdom), and 8,257,102 gal¬ 
lons in Ireland. Duty was paid in the year on 23,452,242 
gallons, amounting, at 10s. per gallon, to £11,726,120. 
The consumption of British spirits in the year is stated 
at 22,616,490 gallons, viz. 11,940,083 gallons in Eng¬ 
land, 5,501,987 gallons in Scotland, 5,170,700 gallons in 
Ireland. 1,633,219 gallons were removed in the year 
from Ireland to England and Scotland, and no less than 
4,258,097 gallons from Scotland to England and Ireland ; 
125,377 gallons from England to Scotland and Ireland. 
At the end of the year there were 16,941,149 gallons of 
British spirits in bonded stores in the United Kingdom 
ready to supply thirsty souls in 1871.— Times . 
