THE wood of the white poplar (Populus tre-mula and P. alba) is generally used to prepare wooden matches. Birch wood is more costly, and less easy to split; the matches it produces burn longer. Pine wood is very good for the preparation of cylindrical matches.

The first operation consists in drying the chunks of wood, in an oven, situated above a baker's furnace. The oven ought to be heated to 428°. When the greater part of the water has escaped in the form of steam, shut off all communication with the air, and leave the wood in it for 12 or 21 hours, open the oven, and begin another operation.

The dried chunks arc cut into stumps from 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 inches long, according to the size of the matches. These cylinders are split square, then, with a knife, they are cut in the direction of the ligneous fibre, in shelves parallel to one of the sizes; cutting them in a perpendicular direction to the first section, all the shelves are subdivided in prisms, which adhere to each other if the knife stops at a few lines above the bearer; when the matches are to be isolated, the knife cuts the block in all its length.

It will interest the reader to know the apparatus used in Germany to manufacture wooden cylindrical matches. To prepare the wood, a plane is employed, the blade of which is represented below.

Fig. 7.

This little tool is very simple. The iron of the plane consists of a little quadrangular and flat bar of steel. The bar is a little curved at one of its ends, which is filed, and has in it three cylindrical holes which are pierced with a drill, and which, being filed, become the punch which penetrates into the wood, and converts it into little cylindrical sticks. This iron is fixed into an ordinary plane.

The wood used is pine, without knots, in pieces from 2 feet 2 inches to 2 feet 5 inches long. The piece of wood, fixed on a table, is smoothed with an ordinary plane; every time the man planes, he draws from this piece of wood, thus prepared, three sticks the length of the wood. One man can produce every minute 180 sticks, then each stick giving 14 matches, he makes every hour 151,200 matches, or 1,512,000 in a day of ten hours. These sticks are fixed in bundles ready to be cut, and are tied together with strings conveniently placed. When the large sticks are tied up they are cut with a knife, having the extremity of the blade moving around an axis. This operation is very rapid.

2. Laying In Press

The pieces of wood which are to form the matches are brought into the factory in pack-ages of 1500 to 2000; they are distributed to the hands who set them in the presses. They dispose a large number (S00 to 1000) in a wooden frame, in which they are fixed in such a way as to be dipped at once into the chemical mastic. This operation occupies the most hands in the factory.

When the work is well divided, the number of hands employed in that operation would be equal to about the 4/5* of the total number of persons employed in the factory.

* This can be judged according to the personnel of some factories in Paris. At Mr. Morillon's, where 3 or 4 women are sufficient to dismount the presses, there are 150 employed to fill them. At Mr. Malbec's, they employ 150 fillers; 35 who dismount and fill the boxes, a dipper to the sulphur, one to the mastic, a grinder for the mastic, and a foreman. At Mr. Delacourcelle's, on 50 men, there are 44 fillers, 4 dismounters, 1 dipper, and 1 foreman.

This operation is done in the following man-ner: Each woman takes into her hand a certain number of pieces of wood, and spreads them rapidly on a shelf with notches, disposed in such a manner that each notch receives one body. The shelf being full, with the other hand, she takes another shelf similar to the above, and covers the first one. A second, a third, etc. shelves are placed in the following manner until the frame is full. When the frame contains 15, 20, and even 25 superposed shelves, they are fastened and fixed together with screws.

In Germany, where the fabrication of matches is the most advanced, they operate in the same manner, and it is the quickest process for the sulphuration. Mr. Peligot has ascertained that by this process a woman can fix in one day 200,000 matches.

In a well constructed factory, the above operation can be conducted, without in any way endangering the health of the operator.

3. Sulphuration Or Dipping In The Sulphur

The presses being filled, and laid up, are brought by women or children into the room intended for the dipping. The dipper takes the frame with both hands, and dips the ends of the bodies into sulphur melted in a square iron kettle, about 2 inches deep, with a flat bottom.

The sulphur must be at the temperature of 462°, and is kept at this point by a gentle heat, which can be limited by adding to it, from time to time, a piece of solid sulphur. Two flat kettles can also be used on the same fire, the first receives the solid sulphur, and when liquefied, it runs into the second. To be certain that the temperature does not raise above 482°, it is preferable to use a bath of boiling chloride of zinc.

4. Dipping Into The Chemical Mastic

The dipping of sulphuretted matches into the chemical mastic is always done in the same room as the sulphuration, and the two dippers work side by side. When the matches have been covered with sulphur at their extremity, the dipper deposits the presses on the floor near the other dipper, who takes them to complete their preparation by dipping the sulphuretted end into the chemical mastic This operation is done in the same manner as the above, except that instead of a hollow kettle, a marble table is used, on which is spread a bed a quarter of an inch thick, of chemical mastic, half liquid. When the matches of one press have been dipped, the bed of mastic is smoothed again with a kind of trowel. He dips a second press, and so on throughout In Germany stone tables are used. In Paris, Mr. Malbec has adopted the use of a kind of trough, with a flat, copper bottom, square, and about 1 1/2 inch deep; it is placed on a stone table. When we come to speak of the question of explosions in factories, it will be seen that it is not a matter of entire indifference what disposition is made for dipping, and that it is an advantage to use Mr. Malbec's apparatus.

5. Drying Of Matches

Matches, saturated with the chemical mastic, arc placed in the oven to dry. The presses are fixed on an open shelf where they will dry freely. The thermometer is used nowhere to graduate the temperature, so that the desiccation is operated more or less quickly. Generally the presses are left in the oven 24 hours. Hereafter we shall speak of imperfections in the disposition of the oven.

6. Dismounting of the PResses - Putting up in Packages and Boxes.

When the matches are thoroughly dried, the presses are carried to the women who have charge of the dismounting of them; they undo the frames, empty the shelves, and collect the matches in bundles. This operation is done quickly, and in many manufactories, the persons who dismount the presses are the same who make up the packages and fill the boxes. The sequel of this work will show the importance of having the matches put up into boxes immediately after they are taken from the press. In many establishments matches are put up into packages of 1000 or 1500, and surrounded with paper. It is an imperfect method.