Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 October 1885 — Making Matches. [ARTICLE]

Making Matches.

Nearly all the operations of matchmaking are now carried on by machinery. The wood is first sawed into blocks of uniform length, usually one and a half inches long, or the length of the match. These blocks are then fed into the cutting-machine, which cuts twelve matches at every stroke. To make round matches, the wood is forced through perforatians in metal plates. The splints are then pushed into slats arranged on a double chain 250 feet long. On this they are carried to the sulphur vat, dipped therein by a mechanical movement, and then in the same manner to the phosphorus vat and dipped. Machines are also used for making the boxes and packing the splints therein. As the consumption of matches is most enormous—being estimated at six a day for every man, woman, and child in Europe and North America—they form an important article of commerce, and the invention of machinery for their manufacture has proved Of great advantage. But the especial valvCe of machinery is that it has so largely reduced the mortality caused by working over the phosphorus. This substance, when heated, throws off fumes which cannot be continuously breathed without causing disease. .In large factories' 144,000 small boxes of matches are often made and packed ready for shipping in a single day.— lnter Ocean.