Show BEFORE MATCHES CAME alio flint annl steel anil ituau anil tallow ihei of oar ancestors to alie present generation it may seem next door to incredible eliat in the first years of alie reign of william IV there were no lucifer matches in lieu thereof there were only long matches or splints of wood tipped at each end with melted sulphur and before the complicated system of dipping the sul phu retted match in concentrated sulphuric acid came into use these matches were kindled by first striking a light with flint and steel and then causing alie spark to ignite a small quantity of tinder an inflammable substance ally composed of partially burned linen this simple adjunct to the process of obtaining a light had been in use all over the world from time immemorial says the london daily telegraph the french tinder was called amadou a word alie etymology of which has been fiercely contested some deriving it from the old french adjective amadou to amorous and conveying alie moral idea of the sweetly agreeable sensation of the hand coming in contact with a very soft substance while others trace it to the latin ad manum dulce the french tinder was often made of the spongy portions of mushrooms and other fungi and prior to the introduction of lucifer matches the manufacture of amadou was one of considerable importance alie substance was beaten on a block somewhat after the manner of felt until it became homogeneous and it was then impregnated with a solution of salts of niter or simply pulverized gunpowder the germans still fabricator fabric atoa delicate kind of amadou which is used in surgery for stanching stan ching hemorrhage As for aint and steel they have as completely faded out from our domestic economy as they have from firearms and the tinderbox tinder box is so rarely seen that it might well be included in an exhibition of old social curios with tinder and tinder boxes has also vanished the when william cobbett was a boy english cottagers used to make for themselves by gathering rushes and dipping them successively in melted tallow until sufficient thickness of adipose matter was obtained in houses where refinement was supposed to prevail alie was placed in a japanned tin shade perforated with circular orifices and the invalid had the pleasure of contemplating a large number of round spots of light on alie cc liing reflected from the screen dips another form of tallow candle much given to splatter ing which smelt abominably have also died the death and mold candles which strove to emulate wax ones in heir form but hardly succeeded hi doing so have been superseded by cheaper candles almost as shapely and as light giving as the old and costly spermaceti seventy years gaa was little used there were no railroads few steamboats and no lucifer matches yet s walter basant might put it the world went very well then |