July 15, 1871.1 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
41 
MATCHES. 
BY B. S. PIIOCTOR. 
(Concluded from page 21.) 
About the beginning of the nineteenth century 
chlorate of potash, with its wonderful oxygen-yield¬ 
ing power, came to the aid of the match manufac¬ 
turer, and small sulphur matches, with a tip of 
chlorate and sugar, were ignited by touching them 
against the stopper of a phial of oil of vitriol. The 
matches were usually sold in tin boxes, with a divi¬ 
sion to hold the phial of acid, the whole being known 
as a chemical fire-box. Several accidents occurred 
from leakage of the acid, and consequent ignition of 
the whole boxful of matches, until the expedient 
was adopted of putting asbestos into the phial, and 
only so much acid upon it as it would absorb. 
One of these old boxes is labelled thus:—• 
“Without Phosphorus. 
Watts’ 
Improved Fire Box 
For obtaining immediate 
Light. 
Directions.—Dip the match sharply into the bottle, 
and instantly withdraw it. 
Anderson’s Place, Cornwall Road, London.” 
The bottle was supplied with asbestos, the che¬ 
mist being expected to add the oil of vitriol at the 
time of sale. Matches, upon a modification of the 
same principle, were afterwards introduced under 
the name of Prometheans. They consisted of spiral 
cones of waxed paper, with a drop of a pasty mass 
of moist clilorate of potash and sugar inserted into 
the open end of the cone, and immersed in this mass 
a capillary glass tube, in which a very small portion 
of oil of vitriol was hermetically sealed. When dry, 
the match could be ignited by striking the end with 
any hard body, so as to break the tube, and thus 
bring the acid in contact with the chlorate. These 
matches were introduced by a Mr. Jones, of the 
Strand. They were usually sold in hard turned- 
wood boxes, and were ignited by holding the tip of 
the match upon the table and striking it with the 
bottom of the box. They were, in many respects, 
very good matches, but were necessarily expensive, 
being sold (to within the last twenty-five years) at 
2s. 6 d. per hundred. They are very permanent; 
some, which are now more than twenty-five years 
old, igniting as well as when new. 
Besides chlorate of potash and sugar, sulphide of 
antimony sometimes entered into the composition 
used in tipping matches for chemical fire-boxes, and 
it was no doubt a compound of that nature, the pre¬ 
cise materials of which, however, I have not been 
able to ascertain, which led to the production of 
the friction match, which was first made by Mr. 
Walker, chemist and druggist, of Stockton, in 1827. 
He had been making a composition for tipping 
matches to be used with oil of vitriol. Having 
stirred the same with a slip of wood, some of the 
composition adhered to it; this, when dry, he acci¬ 
dentally ignited by striking it against the hearth¬ 
stone. Thus, a happy accident suggested to him the 
practicability of making matches which should ig¬ 
nite by friction without the use of oil of vitriol. His 
matches consisted of thin slips of wood about two 
inches and a half long and about the thickness of 
cardboard tipped with his newly-discovered compo- 
Third Series, No. 55. 
sition * They were sold in cardboard boxes, con¬ 
taining fifty matches, and a piece of sand-paper for 
igniting them, the price being a shilling. The sand¬ 
paper was folded with the rough surfaces inwards, 
and the match was ignited by placing the tip be¬ 
tween these rough surfaces, and suddenly withdraw¬ 
ing it, while gentle pressure was applied. It is said 
that Mr. Walker paid three-lialfpence apiece for 
the empty boxes, which were made for him by a 
bookbinder in Stockton. As this was a very im¬ 
portant step in advance, and made by a pharmacist, 
we may not inappropriately quote the following 
notices of him. 
In Richmond’s local records of Stockton and 
neighbourhood, occurs the following :— 
“ May, 1, 1857. Died at Stockton, Mr. John 
Walker, aged 78. He was for many years a drug¬ 
gist at that place, and was the inventor of friction 
matches, the sale of which he commenced in April, 
1827, charging one shilling per box, each box con¬ 
taining fifty lucifers.” 
A correspondent in the Newcastle Daily Chronicle 
supplies the following from the London Atlas news¬ 
paper of January 10, 1830, headed “Instantaneous 
Light”:— 
“ Amongst the different methods invented for ob¬ 
taining a light instantaneously ought certainly to be 
recorded that of Mr. Walker, chemist, Stockton-on- 
Tees. He supplies the purchaser with prepared 
matches, which are put into tin boxes, but are not 
liable to change in the atmosphere, and also with a 
piece of fine glass-paper folded in two. Even a 
strong blow will not infiame the matches, because of 
the softness of the wood underneath, nor does rub¬ 
bing upon wood or any common substance produce 
any effect except that of spoiling the match; but 
when one is pinched between the folds of the glass- 
paper, and suddenly drawn out, it is instantly in¬ 
flamed. Mr. Walker does not make them for exten¬ 
sive sale, but only to supply the small demand in his 
own neighbourhood.” 
“The above,” adds the same writer, “is placed 
under ‘ Scientific Notices,’ and we thus gain a 
glimpse of the first introduction of lucifer matches 
to supersede the flint, steel, and tinder-box process. 
In 1830, and for many years previous, Mr. Walker 
occupied a small shop at the corner of Dovecot 
Street, Stockton, and is well remembered in the lo¬ 
cality as a gentleman of the old school, dressed in 
drab breeches and gaiters, and always sporting a 
particularly clean white apron. Mr. Walker after¬ 
wards removed to larger and more prominent pre¬ 
mises in the High Street, being next door to Mr. 
Thomas Jennett, printer. In 1830 these matches 
were sold at half-a-crown per box, and remained for 
some time at the above price; but as the demand 
increased the cost was reduced, and sixpence per 
box was considered a moderate charge for many 
years. Those who professed to be ‘ knowing ’ upon 
the subject declared old Walker made a handsome 
tiling out of the discovery, inasmuch as he kept the 
secret of manufacture as long as possible to him¬ 
self.” 
These matches, the tips of which were composed 
of sulphide of antimony and chlorate of potash, 
* Probably it consisted of two parts of sulphide of anti¬ 
mony and one of chlorate of potash made into paste with 
g um water, this being the composition known to be in use a 
short time afterwards. 
