26 SEPTEMBER 19, 2019 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Glendale match maker went up in smoke
BY THE OLD TIMER
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
EDITORIAL@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
In May 1904, John T. Huner of Hancock
Street in Brooklyn opened
a match factory in what was then
called Evergreen, located in presentday
Glendale at the corner of Myrtle
Avenue and Centre Avenue (later
called Charlotte Place and now called
60th Lane).
The Our Darling match factory produced
both wooden strike matches and
paper safety matches. Railroad freight
cars on the nearby Bay Ridge line of the
Long Island Rail Road delivered loads
of white pine which was die cut into
small pieces suitable for matches.
Wooden strike matches (also called
friction matches) were fi rst produced
in the U.S. in 1836 when Alonzo Phillips
of Springfield, Massachusetts,
was granted a patent to make matches
using white phosphorus. This was a
poisonous, fl ammable chemical that
was luminous in the dark.
Workers in match factories were
susceptible to necrosis of the jaw, also
known as “phossy jaw.” Rats were also
attracted to the white phosphorus and
chewed on the match heads, causing
fi res. Young children also suff ered
poisoning by putting match heads into
their mouths, and the chemical was
used in many suicides and homicides.
Safety matches were paper matches
designed to light only when struck on
a specially prepared match. They were
invented by Joshua Pussey in 1892 and
eventually, for most uses, replaced
wooden strike matches.
In 1896, one of the large breweries ordered
10 million packets of paper safety
matches to advertise their beer. This
The exterior of the Our Darling Noiseless Matches factory in Ridgewood. Ridgewood Times archives
was the start of volume production.
The original Our Darling Match
Factory was a two-story brick building
with connecting wooden one-story
buildings. The wooden buildings were
covered with zinc plating as a protective
measure. The fi nished matches
and the chemicals were stored in the
wooden buildings.
Just to the north, adjacent to the
railroad, was a tall smokestack for the
power plant.
In the early 1900s, most of the match
production in the U.S. was controlled
by the Match Trust, which set production
rates and prices. Huner did not
belong to the Match Trust and fought
them bitterly.
The Match Trust packaged their
wooden strike matches in boxes of 500,
which were sold by grocers for 5 cents.
John Huner packaged his wooden
strike matches in boxes of 1,000, which
were sold at 5 cents, thus undercutting
the Match Trust.
Making a safer match
In June 1910, the Diamond Match
Company of St. Louis, Missouri, a member
of the Match Trust, announced
that they had developed a harmless
substitute for white phosphorus. Early
in 1911, William Fairburn, who worked
for the Diamond Match Company, was
granted a patent. He had succeeded
in modifying red phosphorus to U.S.
climatic conditions and thus developed
a safer match, as it raised the
ignition temperature more than 100
degrees Fahrenheit.
The less poisonous match was less
fl ammable, and not as luminous in
the dark.
To eliminate their competitors, the
Match Trust went to Congress and lobbied
for legislation placing a prohibitive
tax on matches made with white
phosphorous.
On Jan. 20, 1911, Huner went to
Washington, D.C., and testifi ed before
the House Ways and Means Committee.
He stated that the Match Trust
was pushing this legislation to put the
Our Darling Match Factory and other
companies out of business. Several
days later, The New York Times ran
an editorial stating that a number
of workers in match factories had
become ill working with poisonous
chemicals, and if Huner could not afford
to improve his plant, he should
shut down.
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