3-039-194 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Matchbox-makers at Bow, 1871. '...thousands of poor people in London...depend on the sale and manufacture of these useful little things for their daily bread...560,000,000 boxes of common wooden lucifer-matches...are made in Great Britain in a year. Women and children are mostly employed both in their manufacture...The occupation of dipping the ends of the matches in some phosphoric compound liquid is stated to be very unhealthy...no detail of the work is more suitable for little boys and girls...Our Illustration...in the dwelling of a humble family at Bow, represents children busied in this useful task, which they are commonly able to begin at less than five years of age. Thin wood-shavings...are brought to be folded by the little hands of these babes into the shape of each part of the match-box...The side of the outer case has a piece of sandpaper...pasted upon it, for friction with the match to be lighted...The only thing painful in their toil is that the sand-paper is apt to make the soft skin of their little fingers sore... They are paid at the rate of twopence-half-penny the gross, or twelve dozen, for the boxes they make...The retail seller must, therefore, get a very good profit indeed'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.