There are two things you can do with every good and useful thing—use it and abuse it. Here you are going to read about the abuse of a very useful thing, indeed—a match. When things are a common, everyday part of the household, people are apt to treat them carelessly; and carelessness always means trouble. As you read, think whether anything in this article hits you.

This is a good selection to outline. Perhaps your teacher will have some of the best outlines put on the blackboard.

The match is one of the most valuable and one of the most dangerous articles made by man. It has been in use for less than one hundred years, but think of trying to get along without it!

Suppose, for example, that you were camping far from any houses, and discovered, when the time came to cook dinner, that you had lost your matches. What would you do? Would you rub sticks together like the Indian or make a "bow-drill" like the Eskimo? These were the methods used by mankind for thousands and thousands of years, but they mean desperately hard work, as you would soon realize. You would be fortunate if you could find a bit of flint from which to strike sparks with steel as your great-grandfather probably did. But even in that case you would appreciate matches as never before.

It was not until the year 1827 that an English druggist named John Walker made the first practical friction-matches, known as "Congreves". A folded piece of glass-paper went with every box, and in order to light the match one had to draw it in one hand quickly through the folds of the paper held tightly pressed together with the other. Another kind of match, the "Promethean", appeared a little later. It had at one end a thin glass globule, which it was necessary to press in producing fire.

Thus people went on experimenting, for everyone was interested and there was great demand. Gradually methods of making that were better and cheaper were discovered, until, to-day, matches are found in every home.

It is said that more matches are sold in the United States than in all the rest of the world. More than seven hundred million matches are used in the United States each day. You can hardly imagine such a figure. If a factory made just one match for every minute, night and day, it would take nearly fourteen hundred years for it to produce as many matches as this country uses in a single day. Or—to put it in another way—nearly five hundred thousand flames are struck every minute on an average. There is not one of these flames that would not develop into a destructive fire if it had a chance. Consequently, every match must be regarded, and must be treated, as a possible source of great damage.

Matches, to-day, are of two general classes: Those which may be struck upon any rough surface, and the so-called "safety matches", made to be struck only upon the box. But there are good matches and bad matches in both classes. In other words, while the safety match, as a rule, is safer than the kind first mentioned, a poorly made strike-on-the-box match may be more dangerous than a well-made strike-anywhere match. Therefore, we ought to know something about what a match is, as well as how to use it.

Here is a match. What could appear more harmless? A tiny stick of wood, shorter than your finger, coated at one end with some substance that forms a little bulb, or head—who would believe that it can be either a blessing or a deadly peril, according to the way in which it is used?

The secret of fire-production lies in the head of the match. This contains certain chemicals which take fire easily when heated, and it also contains particles of ground flint in order to create heat by friction when the match is struck. If two objects are rubbed quickly together, the resulting friction brings heat, and all the more easily and quickly if one of the objects be rough. If you sandpaper a board, rubbing it hard, you will soon find both paper and board becoming warm. Thus friction from striking a match produces sufficient heat to cause the head to burst into flame.

Now, it must be remembered that even careful persons may meet with accidents through the use of bad matches. Sometimes, when struck, the blazing head will fly off, or the stick will break and fall; sometimes, too, the match will continue to glow after the flame has been blown out. These are signs that the match is poorly made; probably it is of some very cheap brand, for such things never happen with good matches. Carefulness, therefore, must begin at the time of buying. One should always notice the brand and always order by brand. Whenever a brand is found to have any of these faults it should be avoided in future, no matter how low the price may be.

The best of the strike-anywhere matches are given a special treatment to keep the head from flying off when struck, and also to guard it from being set on fire accidentally. Great care is also taken in the preparation of the wood to safeguard against breaking. But as a class, the safety matches are less dangerous.

Matches of all kinds are carefully tested in the great Underwriters' Laboratories, which The National Board of Fire Underwriters maintains in Chicago, and those that are able to pass the test are labeled by the Laboratories. It is always a protection to find one of these labels on a box. The Laboratories have no interest in the sale of matches, and any manufacturer who will make goods of the right grade can secure the label.

Let us suppose that your house is provided with good matches, those having solid heads and tough sticks. There will be no danger if you are always careful when using them. But are you? Here are some questions for you to answer.

Do you ever throw away a match which is burning or even glowing? Never do this again. It has caused hundreds of deaths and has burned thousands of homes.

How do you strike a match—away from you or toward you? Probably you have never thought about this, but think of it hereafter, and form the habit of always striking away from you. Thus, if the match breaks or its head flies off, it will not be likely to set fire to your clothing. In lighting matches upon a box, first close the box; otherwise the flame may set fire to the whole box. If the box is set in a box-holder, such as those used by smokers, wherein the upper part of the box is open, place the box so that the heads are not exposed. In striking a match upon such a holder, always strike downward away from the open end.

If matches are spilled, do you stop at once and pick up every one? If you leave them strewn about for even a little while, you may forget them until after mischief has been done. A match on the floor is always a dangerous thing. It may be stepped on and ignited, or it may be found by a little child, or it may be carried into the wall or under the floor by a rat or mouse. It is not probable that mice often start fires by gnawing match-heads, but they do like to use them in building nests in warm, comfortable places, close to chimneys or furnace pipes. Dangerous fires may come from this cause or from matches rubbed against beams while being carried to the nest.

Where do you keep your matches? Are they out of reach of little children, as they always should be? Are they kept away from the stove, or the stovepipe, or any other place where they may become overheated? Are they loose in a drawer or on a shelf, or are they in a covered box or dish of metal or earthenware? Sometimes uncovered matches are ignited by the sun's rays shining through a lens-forming bubble in a window-pane.

Do you carry matches on your person? A child should never be allowed to do this. He may be careful, but some careless child may ask him for a match. Always be on the safe side. A grown person should never permit himself to carry loose matches in his pocket. The State Fire Marshal of Iowa says:

Some men, especially smokers, are in the habit of carrying matches around with them. It is the easiest thing in the world for matches carried around loose in a man's pocket to drop out. Suppose the man has work to do about a barn. A match drops out on the barn floor and a horse steps on it. It is a parlor-match and ignites, setting fire to hay and other inflammable material found in barns. Then the barn burns and the cause of fire is reported something like this:

"Unknown. Nobody had been in the barn for some time. Everything safe when the barn was closed up."

Six hundred and ninety-four barn fires took place in Iowa in 1914. Hundreds of these were reported as of unknown origin, but it is safe to say that in a great number of cases, if the cause could have been traced, it would have been found to be a match that had dropped out of a smoker's pocket.

Until we find some better device for producing fire, matches will continue to be used in immense numbers, and they will always be a source of danger in the hands of careless people, and even careful people may be imperiled by the actions of careless people about them. There are no safety-rules more important than those applying to the use of matches, and habits of carefulness should be formed by every person. Some one has said:

Matches do not think with their heads. When you use them, your head has to do all the thinking. Do the thinking! Put them out!

Safety Rules for Buying Matches

1. Purchase by brand, and always avoid brands which break, lose their heads, or glow after being blown out.

2. Look for the label of the Underwriters' Laboratories.

3. Give the preference to strike-on-the-box, or safety matches, but, in case of buying the strike-anywhere match, get one that has a protected tip.

Safety Rules for Using Matches

1. Keep them in covered boxes or dishes, away from the heat of stoves and stovepipes and out of the reach of rats and mice.

2. Strike matches away from you. If you are striking on a box, first close the box. Strike downward on the box.

Questions

1. Make three more rules for using matches.

2. What is the meaning of the following words?

	friction	experimenting
	Underwriters	safety-matches
	inflammable	peril
	ignite	avoid
	accidentally	device

3. Tell three ways in which matches may be dangerous.