The Story of a Tinder-box

by Charles Meymott Tidy

In the year 1826 what were called "lucifers" were invented, and I show you here some of the original "lucifers." They are simply sulphur matches tipped with a mixture of chlorate of potash and sulphide of antimony, and were ignited by drawing them briskly through a little piece of folded glass-paper.

Fig. 9.

In the year 1828, "Prometheans" were invented. I have here two of the original "Prometheans." They consist (as you see) of a small quantity of chlorate of potash and sugar rolled up tightly in a piece of paper. Inside the paper roll is placed a small and sealed glass bubble containing sulphuric acid. When it was wanted to light a "Promethean" you had only to break the bulb of sulphuric acid, the action of which set fire to the mixture of chlorate of potash and sugar, which ignited the paper roll.

In the year 1830 "matches" with sulphur tips were introduced as a means of obtaining fire. They were fired, so far as I can make out, by dipping them into a bottle containing a little phosphorus, which then had to be ignited by friction.

So far as I know, I have now given you very shortly the history of obtaining fire between the years 1669 and 1830. You see how brisk ingenuity had been during this long period, and yet nothing ousted our old friend the tinder-box. The tinder-box seems, as it were, to speak to us with a feeling of pride and say, "Yes, all you have been talking about were the clever ideas of clever men, but I lived through them all; my flint and my steel were easily procured, my ingredients were not dangerous, and I was fairly certain in my action."

In the year 1833 the reign of the tinder-box came to an end. It had had a very long innings—many, many hundred years; but in 1833 its reign was finished. It was in this year the discovery was announced, that bone could be made to yield large quantities of phosphorus at a cheap rate. Originally the price of phosphorus was sufficient to prevent its every-day use. Hanckwitz thus advertises it—"For the information of the curious, he is the only one in London who makes inflammable phosphorus that can be preserved in water. All varieties unadulterated. Sells wholesale and retail. Wholesale, 50s. per oz.; retail, £3 sterling per oz. Every description of good drugs. My portrait will be distributed amongst my customers as a keepsake."

Fig. 10.

Let me give you a brief account of the method of preparing lucifer matches, and to illustrate this part of my story, I am indebted to Messrs. Bryant and May for specimens. Pieces of wood are cut into blocks of the size you see here (Fig. 10 A). These blocks are then cut into little pieces, or splints, of about one-eighth of an inch square (Fig. 10 b). By the bye, abroad they usually make their match splints round by forcing them through a circular plate, pierced with small round holes. I do not know why we in England make our matches square, except for the reason that Englishmen are fond of doing things on the square. The next part of the process is to coat the splints with paraffin or melted sulphur. The necessity for this coating of sulphur or paraffin you will understand by an experiment. If I take some pieces of phosphorus and place them upon a sheet of cartridge paper, and then set fire to the pieces of phosphorus, curiously enough, the ignited phosphorus will not set fire to the paper. I have taken five little pieces of phosphorus (as you see), so as to give the paper every chance of catching fire (Fig. 11). Now that is exactly what would happen if paraffin (or some similarly combustible body) was not placed on the end of the splint; my phosphorus would burn when I rubbed it on the box, but it would not set fire to the match. It is essential, therefore, as you see, in the first instance, to put something on the match that the ignited phosphorus will easily fire, and which will ignite the wood. I will say no more about this now, as I shall have to draw your attention to the subject in another lecture. The end of the splints are generally scorched by contact with a hot plate before they are dipped in the paraffin, after which the phosphorus composition is applied to the match. This composition is simply a mixture of phosphorus, glue, and chlorate of potash. The composition is spread upon a warm plate, and the matches dipped on the plate, so that a small quantity of the phosphorus mixture may adhere to the tip of the match. Every match passes through about seventeen people's hands before it is finished. I told you that in England we generally use chlorate of potash in the preparation of the phosphorus composition, whilst abroad nitrate of potash is usually employed. You know that when we strike a light with an English match a slight snap results, which is due to the chlorate of potash in the match. In the case of nitrate of potash no such snapping noise occurs. Some people are wicked enough to call them "thieves' matches." Just let me show you (in passing) how a mixture of chlorate of potash and sulphur explodes when I strike it.