We’re pleased to have Charlene Raddon join us today with some fascinating historical tidbits. Take it away, Charlene!
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Friction matches allowed people to light fires quickly and efficiently, changing domestic arrangements and reducing the hours spent trying to light fires using more primitive means. But they also created horrific suffering for match-makers: White phosphorus was one of the substances used in some of the first friction matches. Prolonged exposure to it gave many workers the dread “phossy jaw.”
A British pharmacist named John Walker invented the match by accident in 1826. He was working on an experimental paste to be used in guns. He had a breakthrough when he scraped the wooden instrument he was using to mix the substances in his paste, and it caught fire.
Walker then produced “a flammable paste made with antimony sulfide, potassium chlorate and gum arabic, into which he dipped cardboard strips coated with sulfur.” He started selling his “friction lights” to locals in April 1827, and they quickly took off.
Walker never patented his invention, in part because “the burning sulfur coating would sometimes drop from the stick, with a risk of damage to flooring or the user’s clothing.” His invention was quickly copied by Samuel Jones of London, who started selling “Lucifers” in 1829. Advances in matches continued over the 1830s and into the 1840s.
Match-making became a common trade across England in “hundreds of factories spread across the country. For 12 to 16 hours a day, workers dipped treated wood into a phosphorus concoction, then dried and cut the sticks into matches.
As was typical in the the factories of the nineteenth century, matchmakers were predominantly women and children, half of them kids who hadn’t reached their teens. Working long hours indoors in a cramped, dark factory put these children at risk of contracting tuberculosis and getting rickets, as well as phossy jaw, a gruesome and debilitating condition caused by inhaling white phosphorus fumes during those long hours. Around 11% of those exposed to phosphorus fumes developed ‘phossy jaw’ about five years after initial exposure.
The condition causes the bone in the jaw to die and teeth to decay, resulting in extreme suffering and sometimes the loss of the jaw. Although phossy jaw was far from the only side-effect of prolonged white phosphorus exposure, it became a visible symbol of the suffering caused by industrial chemicals in match plants. By 1892, newspapers were investigating the plight of match workers.
One Salvation Army match factory worker, Mrs. Fleet, contracted the disease after working five years at the company. After complaining of tooth and jaw ache, she was sent home, had four teeth extracted, lost part of her jaw bone, and suffered excruciating pain. The smell of the dying bone, which eventually literally came out through her cheek, was so bad that her family couldn’t abide it. She lost her job, and no other match company would hire her. Phossy jaw was often compared to leprosy because of the physical disfigurement and the condition’s social stigma.
Eventually, match makers stopped using white phosphorus in matches, and in 1910, it was outlawed in the United States.
Giveaway!
Charlene is giving away two copies of The Outlaw and the Bounty Hunter, Book 2 in her Outlaw Brides series drawn from those who leave comments.
Do you use matches around your home or when camping?
If not, what newer invention do you use to light fireplaces, stoves, or grills?
