Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

16" THE MATCH-MAKING INDUSTRY IN GREAT BRITAIN. THERE is probably not any item of British manufacture that is so invin- cible a “ globe - trotter ” as matches. Go where one may in the footsteps of the white man, the way is strewn with “ Home ” made matches. Go over endless fields of ice in search of either Pole, and the long weariness of hope deferred is cheered by tobacco kindled by English matches. The match - making in- dustry in this country is represented by about fifteen factories, employing in round figures about five thousand hands, of whom seventy-five per cent, are women. By far the most important firms are Messrs. Bryant and May and Messrs. R. Bell and Company, whose works in the East End of Lon- don were visited specially for the purpose of this article. These two firms alone employ a great army of workpeople, and on their premises can be seen all that is most up-to-date in the way of machinery, used under the most auspicious conditions possible. The experi- ment made by the Salvation Army to em- ploy labour on the same lines has had to be discontinued. Thanks to stringent regulations imposed by latter-day authorities, this industry is now equally salutary, and capable of being carried on under as tolerable circumstances as any other manipulated by workers of a similar class. The wages received range well above the average. That it makes but slight demands on physical strength and benefits by lightness of handling, accounts for the KILLING FRAMES READY FOR DIPPING. preponderance of women match - makers. To give an adequate idea of the interesting proceedings in such a diversified factory, one must necessarily take each department in turn. Saw-mills, wooden matches, wax matches box-making — wood, cardboard and tin — label printing, box filling and packing, for export, etc. To begin with wooden matches. The particular wood used is pine, which, in as far as the London fac- tories are concerned, comes exclusively from Canada, in spite of the various attempts intermittently made by shipments from other countries to win approval from British match- wood buyers. The timber is delivered in planks of about ten feet in length by nine inches in width and three inches in thickness, which, after being sawn into suitable lengths, are placed on machines which cut them up into match splints at lightning speed. These “ splints,” or headless matches, are taken into a large room termed the “filling room,” where, having been delivered in confused heaps, they are quickly reduced to orderly lines by experiencing a short sojourn on the “straightening” machine, thus being rendered convenient to be filled into frames containing about six thousand of these splints, every one separated from the other. The ends of these splints are then passed through a bath of heated paraffin, and then on to a “ dipping ” table, where the match composition is carefully spread at one thickness. Being pressed down into this, they receive their heads. This process