In the latest match making machine, the wood from which the match splints are made is pine plank two inches thick which, after thorough drying is re-sawed into lengths one and seven-eighths to two and one-half inches, representing the length of the matches to be made. The knots and cross-grained parts are cut out of the blocks and these blocks are put into the automatic feeder of a machine, the paraffine and composition for the head of the match having been properly prepared and placed in their respective receptacles, where they can be replenished without stopping the machine. The knives or dies that cut the match splint from the blocks are so placed in head block of the machine that when the splints are cut they are separated by a quarter of an inch and placed or set in castiron plates made into an endless chain by link attachments. At each revolution of the machine 44 matches are cut and set, the machine making 175 to 250 revolutions a minute. From the cutting end of the machine the endless chain moves along over a drying or heating block prepared for this purpose where the match splint is heated to a degree nearly equal to that required to melt paraffine so that the paraffine may not chill on the stick when the splint passes through it. but that the end may be thoroughly saturated. The chain moves on to the composition rollers where the match receives its head, and then comes into contact with blasts of cool dry air for an hour and a half, when it returns to the place of beginning, just before reaching which the matches are punched out of the chain by an automatic device into small paper or strawboard boxes varying in size, containing 65 to 500 matches, the boxes having been fed into the machine automatically. Two million or more paper or strawboard boxes are consumed each day in the packing of matches in this country. One million and a half pounds of chlorate of potash are consumed annually in the manufacture of match es.