42 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[July 13,1871. 
required so much friction for their ignition, that the 
tips were frequently pulled off or worn off before the 
match took fire, a fault which was remedied some 
six or seven years later by the use of phosphorus. 
Dr. Moldenhauer and Dr. Boettger are spoken of 
as amongst the most successful workers in the pro¬ 
duction of phosphorus matches, the composition 
used by the latter being as follows:— 
Paris. 
Phosphorus.4 
Nitre.lb 
Glue.6 
Bed Lead.5 
Smalt.2 
The glue being softened with water, and melted in 
a warm mortar, the phosphorus was stirred in some¬ 
what in the manner of making an emulsion, the 
temperature used being (140° F.) a few degrees 
above the melting-point of phosphorus (108° F.). 
When these were thoroughly mixed, the nitre and 
colours were added, and a soft, uniform paste pro¬ 
duced, with which the matches were tipped after 
having been first tipped with sulphur. 
Phosphorus does not readily communicate its com¬ 
bustion to wood, probably on account of the phos¬ 
phoric acid produced condensing upon and protect¬ 
ing carbonaceous or fixed materials from the action 
of the am; thus arises the necessity for the use of 
sulphur or some other volatilizable substance which 
is [rendered gaseous and ignited by the heat of the 
burning phosphorus, and can readily communicate 
its combustion to the wood. 
To avoid the unpleasant smell of sulphurous acid, 
the sulphur was replaced by wax or stearine in the 
better qualities of matches; the mode of impreg¬ 
nating the tips of the splints with these substances 
being to press the end of a bundle of them upon a 
hot iron plate till the wood began to char, and dip¬ 
ping them while thus heated into a tray of melted 
wax. Camphor was added to the wax by Mr. Bell. 
In 1861, Mr. Letchford patented the use of paraf¬ 
fin for the same purpose, the object being to find a 
material capable of attaining this end, and suffi¬ 
ciently cheap to be used to the common descriptions 
of matches. 
Chlorate of potash, which was indispensable in 
the early forms both of dipping and friction matches, 
was not only not essential, but in some respects dis¬ 
advantageous in union with phosphorus. Nitrate 
of potash was found to give a quieter and less explo¬ 
sive combustion. The ease with which the phos¬ 
phorus compounds ignited enabled manufacturers 
to use soft materials, which would not have borne 
the rough usage to which Mr. Walker’s original fric¬ 
tion matches were necessarily subjected. Thus, wax 
vestas and fusees of soft brown paper, or amadou 
impregnated with nitrate of potash, were added to 
the growing number of varieties. 
After the use of phosphorus had been considerably 
developed, it was found that the operatives exposed 
to its vapours were frequently attacked with painful 
swellings and inflammation of the lower jaw, some¬ 
times resulting in mortification and exfoliation of 
the bone. The disease was known as pliosplio- 
necrosis. Though a careful attention to cleanliness 
and ventilation is enough to prevent the occurrence 
of this malady, there is no doubt that the great 
suffering it had inflicted upon some of the workpeople 
acted as one of the inducements to adopt amorphous 
phosphorus, when that body was made known by 
Schrotter. He exposed phosphorus, in closed vessels, 
to a temperature of about 500° F., and found that it 
was changed in many of its most prominent quali¬ 
ties. It had become opaque, and of a dark red 
colour; it had ceased to be volatile and fusible; it 
had lost its tendencies to undergo slow combustion at 
low temperatures, and was no longer poisonous. But 
while it had lost many of the objectionable qualities 
possessed by phosphorus in its ordinary condition, it 
had also lost some of the qualities which gave phos¬ 
phorus an advantage over other materials for match- 
manufacture,—matches of amorphous phosphorus 
being more difficult to ignite and burning with a 
sputtering flame, which qualities have hitherto pre¬ 
vented their coming into general use. 
But Dr. Boettger, who had devoted much attention 
to the improvement of match manufacture, suggested 
in 1848 that the amorphous phosphorus might be 
made into a friction surface, to be used for igniting 
matches, tipped with a chlorate compound not capable 
of ignition by simple rubbing upon an ordinary rough 
surface. Attempts to carry out this suggestion were 
made with partial success by various German and 
French manufacturers during the years 1854 and 
1855; but it was not till Messrs. Bryant and May, 
in August, 1855, patented a modification of this 
principle that these “ safety matches” attained any 
popularity in England. 
Another form of safety match was introduced in 
1859 by Messrs. Devilliers and Dalemagne. Each 
match was tipped at both ends, one end having the 
chlorate and the other the amorphous phosphorus, 
and to ignite them the match was broken in two, 
and one end rubbed against the other,—an arrange¬ 
ment more fanciful than advantageous. 
The consumption of matches has increased enor¬ 
mously since the facilities for their production led to 
a reduction in their price. About five-and-twenty 
years ago a witty dealer adopted for his placard the 
lines at the head of tins paper :— 
“ O, Lucifer! how art thou fallen ! 
Only one penny per bos !” 
Lucifer lias continued to fall ever since, and } r et we 
may say almost all varieties of lucifers are above 
the price of rubies—Bryant and May’s “ Rubies 
red-tipped matches of a very cheap quaffiy, being 
sold at 2s. 6d. per gross of boxes. This price, low 
as it is, is not more surprising than the great number 
produced,—the above firm making daily no less than 
1250 gross of boxes of tins quality alone, that is 
about thirteen millions of matches per day. 
It might be supposed that, with so great a produc¬ 
tion and so small a price, there was not scope for 
further progress in this manufacture; yet the very 
magnitude of the craft gives a prospect of ample re¬ 
muneration to any one who can devise an improve¬ 
ment in the quality or greater economy in any 
department of the work. Various suggestions have 
been made which have not yet been carried out, but 
some of which will no doubt afford a handsome 
profit to any one, be he chemist or manipulator, who 
finds the means of making them practically avail¬ 
able. For example, the proportion of phosphorus 
formerly used was about one-seventli of the tipping 
composition, but has been considerably reduced by 
being more finely divided; and it is said that, by 
dissolving the phosphorus in bisulphide of carbon, it 
! may be reduced to yfojtli of the quantity now com- 
