Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 September 1874 — Making Matches. [ARTICLE]

Making Matches.

For those wlio care to experiment in making home-made matches the following hintsfrom the Scientific -American, may prove serviceable: The preparation is different according as they are chemical or lucifer matches. For chemical matches, put forty grains of phosphorus in a widemouthed bottle; add enough oil of turpentine to cover the phosphorus; then mix in ten grains of flour of sulphur. Put the bottle in hot water until the phosphorus is entirely dissolved; stop the mouth of the bottle with a cork, and well shake the whole until it has become cold; afterward pour off the supernatant oil of turpentine. Into the mixture of phosphorus which remains in the bottle dip the extremities of the matches; ana after some time, when they have become dried, drop them into the following mixture: Dissolve thirty grains gum-arabic in a small quantity of water ; add to it twenty grains of chlorate of potash, and mix them intimately together; then add Ten grains of soot, previously mixed with a few drops of spirits of wine. In about twenty hours the matches will be perfectly dry, when they will ignite on rubbing them over a rough surface. For lucifer matches use one-third of phosphorus and the remainder of gum-arabic water and Coloring matter like minium or Prussian blue. Mix in a water bath and muller carefully,' The dipping is performed in the following, manner: The melted composition is spread upon a board covered with elo'h or leather, and the workman alternately dips the two ends of the matches, that are fixed, in a frame. The fumes are very poisonous.