But to enumerate the industrial arts to which air and other pneumatic machines have been adapted would be to catalogue them all. Mention is made of others in chapters in which those special arts are treated.
[CHAPTER XIII.]
ART OF HEATING, VENTILATING, COOKING, REFRIGERATION AND LIGHTING.
That Prometheus stole fire from heaven to give it to man is perhaps as authentic an account of the invention of fire as has been given. It is also reported that he brought it to earth in a hollow tube. If a small stick or twig had then been dipped into the divine fire the suggestion of the modern match may be supposed to have been made.
But men went on to reproduce the fire in the old way by rubbing pieces of wood together, or using the flint, the steel and the tinder until 1680, when Godfrey Hanckwitz of London, learning of the recent discovery of phosphorus and its nature, and inspired by the Promethean idea, wrapped the phosphorus in folds of brown paper, rubbed it until it took fire, and then ignited thereat one end of a stick which he had dipped in sulphur; and this is commonly known as the first invented match. There followed the production of a somewhat different form of match, sticks first dipped in sulphur, and then in a composition of chlorate potash, sulphur, colophony, gum of sugar, and cinnabar for coloring. These were arranged in boxes, and were accompanied by a vial containing sulphuric acid, into which the match was dipped and thereby instantly ignited. These were called chemical matches and were sold at first for the high price of fifteen shillings a box.
They were too costly for common use, and so our fathers went on to the nineteenth century using the flint, the steel and the tinder, and depending on the coal kept alive upon their own or their neighbour’s hearth.
Prometheus, however, did reappear about 1820-25, when a match bearing the name “Promethean” was invented. It consisted of a roll of paper treated with sugar and chlorate of potash and a small cell containing sulphuric acid. This cell was broken by a pair of pliers and the acid ignited the composition by contact therewith.
It was not until 1827-29 that John Walker, chemist, at Stockton-upon-Tees, improved upon the idea of Prometheus and Hanckwitz of giving fire to men in a hollow tube. He used folded sanded paper—it may have been a tube—and through this he drew a stick coated with chlorate of potash and phosphorus. This successful match was named “Lucifer,” whose other name was Phosphor, the Morning Star, and the King of the Western Land. Faraday, to whom also was given Promethean inspiration, procured some of Walker’s matches and brought them to public notice.
In many respects the mode of their manufacture has been improved, but in principle of composition and ignition they remain the same as Walker’s to-day. In 1845, Schrotter of Vienna discovered amorphous or allotropic phosphorus, which rendered the manufacture of matches less dangerous to health and property. Tons of chemicals and hundreds of pine trees are used yearly in the making of matches, and many hundreds of millions of them are daily consumed.