WEBVTT - Strike the Match, Part 3 0:00:01.000 --> 0:00:05.240 The Zeros taught us phosphorus. We learned to like the 0:00:05.320 --> 0:00:09.840 fire by playing glaciers. When a boy and tender guest 0:00:10.039 --> 0:00:14.480 by power of opposite to balance odd, if white a 0:00:14.640 --> 0:00:27.280 red must be paralysis. Our primer dumb unto vitality. Welcome 0:00:27.320 --> 0:00:34.040 to Invention, a production of I Heart Radio. Hey, welcome 0:00:34.080 --> 0:00:37.240 to Invention. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. 0:00:37.760 --> 0:00:40.720 And that was a little Emily Dickinson to catch things 0:00:41.000 --> 0:00:43.800 ablaze here as we begin our third and I guess 0:00:43.880 --> 0:00:46.519 final episode on matches. Who would have known that she 0:00:46.560 --> 0:00:50.320 had a poem by chemistry this one. I had never 0:00:50.360 --> 0:00:52.680 heard of this, this particular poem before. I was just 0:00:52.800 --> 0:00:56.120 looking up. I was just researching phosphorus and then lo 0:00:56.240 --> 0:00:59.360 and behold, there's a poem by Emily Dickinson. And I 0:00:59.440 --> 0:01:01.600 was like, oh, well, we've got to include this. I've 0:01:01.600 --> 0:01:03.279 got to do a cold reading of this poem. I'm 0:01:03.320 --> 0:01:05.400 not sure it's actually about chemistry. I have no idea 0:01:05.480 --> 0:01:07.559 what this one's about. Like like many of her great 0:01:07.560 --> 0:01:10.160 poems that I really do enjoy a reading line by line, 0:01:10.200 --> 0:01:13.240 it ultimately becomes very difficult to understand what they're about. 0:01:13.319 --> 0:01:16.440 If anything. Yeah, Like it's it's almost I guess certainly 0:01:16.480 --> 0:01:21.199 not literally about phosphorus, but it is at least using 0:01:21.240 --> 0:01:24.600 phosphorus as a metaphor for something. It's bringing up tinder 0:01:24.600 --> 0:01:27.560 and the white and the red. Well, I can't help 0:01:27.560 --> 0:01:29.920 but wonder if that is a reference to white and 0:01:30.000 --> 0:01:33.319 red phosphorus we'll be discussing in this episode now. In 0:01:33.360 --> 0:01:36.319 the last episode, we finally got to the friction match 0:01:36.520 --> 0:01:41.600 attributed to the English chemist and and druggist John Walker, 0:01:41.720 --> 0:01:45.600 who in the eighteen twenties put together this paste made 0:01:45.600 --> 0:01:49.960 of antimony sulfide, potassium chlorate, all bound together with a gum, 0:01:50.000 --> 0:01:51.920 put that on the end of a stick, gave it 0:01:51.960 --> 0:01:53.920 to you with a piece of sand paper and said 0:01:53.920 --> 0:01:58.280 have fun. That's right. We also discussed the properties of phosphorus, 0:01:58.280 --> 0:02:01.160 white phosphorus, and some of the danger us sounding inventions, 0:02:01.320 --> 0:02:04.440 or not just dangerous sounding, but outright dangerous inventions that 0:02:04.560 --> 0:02:08.120 sought to take advantage of its incendiary properties. Right. And then, 0:02:08.200 --> 0:02:10.560 as pointed out in one of our sources for this episode, 0:02:10.639 --> 0:02:13.840 uh an article by Pollock, Brown and Reuben that was 0:02:13.880 --> 0:02:18.040 published in two thousand fifteen in Cranio Maximo, Facial Trauma 0:02:18.080 --> 0:02:22.920 and reconstruction. Around eighteen sixty, phosphorus and strike matches began 0:02:23.000 --> 0:02:25.480 to come together in a major way, right, because there 0:02:25.480 --> 0:02:28.400 are different recipes you can use for a kind of 0:02:28.440 --> 0:02:32.240 strike match, right. Uh. Obviously, phosphorus has an advantage because 0:02:32.240 --> 0:02:35.120 it has uh the the ability has a low ignition 0:02:35.160 --> 0:02:37.880 point in the ability to ignite in the presence of oxygen, 0:02:38.560 --> 0:02:40.800 so it's not hard to get it burning. Then would 0:02:40.800 --> 0:02:43.960 also sometimes be combined with like some sulfur elements. There 0:02:44.000 --> 0:02:45.760 are a few different ways you can put together the 0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:49.280 chemical head of a match, but phosphorus is clearly a 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:52.880 winner for that recipe. Yeah. The authors here mentioned that 0:02:52.919 --> 0:02:55.000 in eighteen fifty nine, which would have been the year 0:02:55.080 --> 0:02:58.440 of Walker's death, he found uh white phosphorus also sometimes 0:02:58.440 --> 0:03:02.000 referred to as yellow phosphorus being added to sulfur based 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:05.480 match dick coatings to trigger an even more volatile flame, 0:03:06.520 --> 0:03:09.240 which is you can imagine it could be more beneficial, 0:03:09.320 --> 0:03:12.840 especially if you were in a trying environment. Even today, 0:03:12.919 --> 0:03:15.400 you can get you can get matches that flare up 0:03:15.520 --> 0:03:17.400 more and a little or a little more you know, 0:03:17.400 --> 0:03:20.520 almost explosive at the initial strike. Another thing I'm not 0:03:20.600 --> 0:03:23.399 positive about, but I kind of wonder if having more 0:03:23.480 --> 0:03:26.600 power in the phosphorus and less in the sulfur would 0:03:26.720 --> 0:03:30.519 make the matches less noxious in terms of fumes and smell, 0:03:31.160 --> 0:03:33.359 because remember in the last episode, one of the main 0:03:33.520 --> 0:03:36.920 types of matches were these things called lucifers, the sulfur 0:03:36.960 --> 0:03:39.920 based strike matches that were being produced by a guy 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:42.920 out of London I think named Samuel Jones. And you know, 0:03:42.920 --> 0:03:44.920 it was like warned, it was like, be careful in 0:03:44.960 --> 0:03:49.000 haling this stuff. It is not for the week of lung. Now. 0:03:49.000 --> 0:03:52.440 According to Jamie Wizniak, who was one of the authors 0:03:52.440 --> 0:03:54.520 that we referenced in the previous episodes, who wrote wrote 0:03:54.520 --> 0:03:56.520 a piece about the history of matches, you had an 0:03:56.520 --> 0:04:00.920 earlier innovator by the name of Jacob frederic Or, who 0:04:00.960 --> 0:04:03.960 is often credited as the first manufacturer of the phosphorus 0:04:03.960 --> 0:04:08.920 based friction match. However, French chemist Charles Mark Saria, who 0:04:08.960 --> 0:04:13.320 lived eighteen twelve through demonstrated the design earlier than that, 0:04:13.960 --> 0:04:16.480 and all of this began to get going really in 0:04:16.560 --> 0:04:21.240 earnest around um eighteen thirty, but again eighteen sixty. By 0:04:21.240 --> 0:04:25.000 that point, the white phosphorus friction match was apparently very popular. 0:04:25.200 --> 0:04:29.039 So here we go a new evolution in our match technology. 0:04:29.120 --> 0:04:32.200 They were very popular, they were handy, but as it 0:04:32.240 --> 0:04:36.440 turns out, their manufacturer was coming at a horrifying price. Yes, 0:04:36.960 --> 0:04:39.640 so to be clear that there are no shortage of 0:04:39.720 --> 0:04:44.600 horrors to be found within the Industrial Revolution, the world's 0:04:44.640 --> 0:04:48.119 growing demand for manufactured goods, in the rapidly changing ways 0:04:48.160 --> 0:04:50.599 that these goods were produced and introduced a variety of 0:04:50.680 --> 0:04:54.640 environments and practices that were harmful to human and environmental 0:04:54.680 --> 0:04:57.960 well being. So the manufacturer of the phosphorus match, though, 0:04:58.160 --> 0:05:02.520 presents a particularly pronounced and horrifying example, and that is 0:05:03.080 --> 0:05:08.320 in the creation of these phosphorus matches, Uh, the individuals 0:05:08.360 --> 0:05:10.960 who work to create them day in, day out, hour 0:05:11.040 --> 0:05:13.920 upon hour began to suffer from what is known as 0:05:14.040 --> 0:05:18.640 Fossey jaw, or more officially, phosphorus necrosis of the jaw. 0:05:19.120 --> 0:05:22.599 This is a necrosis of the bones in the face 0:05:22.800 --> 0:05:26.120 that was common enough that it got a cute nickname 0:05:27.200 --> 0:05:30.000 Fossey jaw. And somehow that makes it so much worse, 0:05:30.080 --> 0:05:32.640 you know, especially when you're looking at photographs. I mean, 0:05:32.720 --> 0:05:34.880 this was an age of a photographic evidence. We have 0:05:34.960 --> 0:05:37.760 photographs of the kind of damage that was wrought on 0:05:37.839 --> 0:05:40.479 people's facial features. Yeah, like what if you had like 0:05:40.520 --> 0:05:43.760 a cute, funny name for cholera, Like that's telling you 0:05:43.760 --> 0:05:46.560 you're getting cholera away too much? Yeah, it makes it. Yeah, 0:05:46.600 --> 0:05:49.000 it just makes it all the more sinister. Um. So, 0:05:49.520 --> 0:05:52.320 humans have been working with white phosphorus since its discovery 0:05:52.320 --> 0:05:55.160 in the seventeenth century. But it's one thing for an 0:05:55.160 --> 0:05:58.840 alchemist or a chemist to encounter the fumes of its 0:05:58.920 --> 0:06:01.560 um of of working with it, you know, perhaps in 0:06:01.640 --> 0:06:04.200 passing inside of a layer or a workshop. It's quite 0:06:04.240 --> 0:06:07.159 another for these fumes to be summoned in an industrial 0:06:07.279 --> 0:06:11.039 environment and inflicted on unsuspecting workers day in and day out. 0:06:11.720 --> 0:06:14.920 And that's exactly what happened. So Pollock at All discussed 0:06:14.920 --> 0:06:17.520 this in that that paper. The full title is Fossey 0:06:17.600 --> 0:06:19.920 Jaw and this Fosse Jaw of the nineteenth and twenty 0:06:19.960 --> 0:06:23.640 first century, The Dioternity of John Walker and the Friction 0:06:23.720 --> 0:06:26.279 match Man. I had to look up the word diuternity. 0:06:26.320 --> 0:06:28.599 I was not familiar with that one. Apparently it means 0:06:28.800 --> 0:06:32.839 having the quality of long lasting nous. So they point 0:06:32.880 --> 0:06:36.200 out that the vats that were used to create these 0:06:36.640 --> 0:06:39.800 the phosphorus pace for these matches. It released all these 0:06:39.839 --> 0:06:43.120 toxic fumes, and these were particularly pronounced in the dipping 0:06:43.160 --> 0:06:47.240 centers and in the drawing rooms for the matches. As such, 0:06:47.279 --> 0:06:49.839 the dippers and the handlers were exposed to it the most, 0:06:49.960 --> 0:06:52.000 right because there were a number of different jobs. I mean, 0:06:52.040 --> 0:06:54.159 one of the things that came about during the Industrial 0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:56.839 Revolution was like the division of labor into smaller and 0:06:56.880 --> 0:06:59.800 smaller jobs repeated more and more. So like there were 0:06:59.839 --> 0:07:02.039 some people whose job was just to like cram the 0:07:02.080 --> 0:07:05.280 matches into the boxes as fast as they could and whatever, 0:07:05.320 --> 0:07:08.120 and so like those people were at lower risk than 0:07:08.160 --> 0:07:10.560 the people who were dealing directly with the fumes at 0:07:10.600 --> 0:07:13.480 the more volatile stage. And these sort are some pretty 0:07:13.480 --> 0:07:16.000 tough fumes. I mean, we know today that as little 0:07:16.040 --> 0:07:19.080 as fifty milligrams of white phosphorus can prove fatal, for 0:07:19.080 --> 0:07:21.720 for instance, and and here that the fumes are just 0:07:21.840 --> 0:07:25.160 you know, and imagining the places where these uh, these 0:07:25.160 --> 0:07:28.240 matches are being produced, the ventilation is probably not that great, 0:07:28.720 --> 0:07:32.800 and the levels of the toxicity from this exposure basically 0:07:32.800 --> 0:07:36.520 broke down as follows. This again according to Pollock at all. So, 0:07:36.600 --> 0:07:39.160 first of all, ginger ittis within three to five years 0:07:39.200 --> 0:07:43.000 of exposure, so gum disease. Yeah. Uh, and then also 0:07:43.560 --> 0:07:47.840 sequestriation of alveola crest bone within three to five years 0:07:47.880 --> 0:07:53.200 of exposure. Now, sequestration in the medical sense is abnormal separation, 0:07:53.720 --> 0:07:56.880 and the area in question this is the uh, the 0:07:56.920 --> 0:08:00.520 most coronal portion of the bones surrounding the two. So yeah, 0:08:00.800 --> 0:08:03.600 as in common terms, people would talk about the teeth 0:08:03.640 --> 0:08:08.000 becoming loose, because like the bone and the gums, everything 0:08:08.000 --> 0:08:10.200 that's sort of holding them in place is getting loosened 0:08:10.280 --> 0:08:13.640 up and coming away. Yeah. The fun part two is 0:08:13.680 --> 0:08:16.040 that if you read this entire paper, you will begin 0:08:16.080 --> 0:08:19.320 to feel your teeth loosen a little bit. I got 0:08:19.400 --> 0:08:22.520 so gross Starward researching this episode. Yeah, that's grim stuff. 0:08:22.560 --> 0:08:24.480 So yeah, this would also this could also result in 0:08:24.560 --> 0:08:27.920 lost teeth, of course, uh, because then the next level 0:08:28.120 --> 0:08:34.400 is full on osteo necrosis of mandibular and maxillary bone stock. 0:08:34.600 --> 0:08:37.199 This would be the Fossey jaw within three to five 0:08:37.280 --> 0:08:40.160 years of exposure. So we're talking quote death of bone 0:08:40.200 --> 0:08:43.440 tissue due to temporary or permanent loss of blood supply 0:08:43.520 --> 0:08:46.920 to the bones. And the authors described this resulting in 0:08:47.040 --> 0:08:50.360 quote unrelenting jaw pain. Yeah, and of course you can 0:08:50.440 --> 0:08:53.360 understand why, because the bone is basically turning into a sponge, 0:08:53.559 --> 0:08:57.240 you know, like it's like losing density because it's not 0:08:57.320 --> 0:09:00.160 being able to replace itself with new tissue, because is 0:09:00.160 --> 0:09:02.840 not getting the blood flow. It needs something that's even 0:09:02.880 --> 0:09:04.760 more eerie and kind of hard to believe, but I 0:09:05.000 --> 0:09:07.480 read read mentions of this and a couple of sources. 0:09:08.080 --> 0:09:11.920 There is this idea of the phosphoric luminescence as the 0:09:11.960 --> 0:09:16.160 gums begin to separate and the jawbone begins to decay. 0:09:16.200 --> 0:09:20.520 Apparently some victims gums would glow a faint, pale green 0:09:20.640 --> 0:09:24.559 in the dark. That is horrifying. And yet there's more, 0:09:24.600 --> 0:09:28.319 because this could also lead to oral and oro cutaneous fistula. 0:09:28.600 --> 0:09:33.679 These were also common, and fistially means connections between two hollows, 0:09:33.720 --> 0:09:38.720 so like unnatural connections between two hollows, and with increased exposure, 0:09:38.720 --> 0:09:42.720 they could also develop fossy lung resulting in cough speutium 0:09:42.720 --> 0:09:47.679 production and hemoptysis, and hemoptysis is coughing up blood, and 0:09:47.679 --> 0:09:50.240 then you could also develop Fossey brain. This would be 0:09:50.240 --> 0:09:54.400 where the individual would would would have seizures. Obviously this 0:09:54.440 --> 0:09:56.680 could be fatal. You could also become anemic. This would 0:09:56.679 --> 0:09:59.480 be where the blood lacks enough healthy red blood cells 0:09:59.840 --> 0:10:03.199 or or hemoglobin. And then also you could have Fossey 0:10:03.280 --> 0:10:06.439 marrow and this would just be reduced white blood cells. 0:10:06.720 --> 0:10:09.480 Now there are lots of existing photographs of what this 0:10:09.559 --> 0:10:13.440 is like, it's uh, it's horrible. Yeah. Yeah, we're talking 0:10:13.480 --> 0:10:16.960 complete decomposition of the jaw and extensive inflammation of the 0:10:17.000 --> 0:10:21.320 surrounding tissue. And it did not apparently take the match 0:10:21.400 --> 0:10:24.320 industry long to realize that there were some serious issues 0:10:24.360 --> 0:10:26.800 going on. Yeah, I was reading actually as early as 0:10:26.840 --> 0:10:30.679 eighteen fifty two. Charles Dickens wrote about quote one of 0:10:30.720 --> 0:10:35.319 the Evils of matchmaking in his weekly magazine Household Words, 0:10:35.400 --> 0:10:40.560 which include it. Included reports from different matchstick factories about 0:10:40.640 --> 0:10:43.360 the like the disease and the conditions there, Like he 0:10:43.360 --> 0:10:46.439 talks about one factory that I don't know exactly what 0:10:46.480 --> 0:10:48.960 it was they did, especially he he reports like some 0:10:49.040 --> 0:10:52.679 hygiene conditions they're involved, like washing and stuff like that, 0:10:52.720 --> 0:10:55.440 But I don't know exactly how that would contribute to 0:10:56.440 --> 0:10:59.400 reducing the exposure to the vapors or something. But he's 0:10:59.480 --> 0:11:03.240 like they were were doing dental washings for the individuals 0:11:03.360 --> 0:11:05.840 and he doesn't say, dental It sounds more like some 0:11:05.920 --> 0:11:07.920 kind of bathing or something. But I don't know. I 0:11:07.920 --> 0:11:10.320 don't fully understand what was happening there. But he at 0:11:10.400 --> 0:11:12.679 least says, you know, in some factories the conditions aren't 0:11:12.679 --> 0:11:15.200 as bad as in others, and it seems to be 0:11:15.240 --> 0:11:17.960 suggested that you can do something to prevent this. But 0:11:18.040 --> 0:11:19.600 I don't know, I mean maybe, I mean, I'm sure 0:11:19.679 --> 0:11:23.480 Charles Dickens was not an epidemiologist here. Well, you know, 0:11:23.480 --> 0:11:25.160 I think I'll probably get to this in a bit. 0:11:25.160 --> 0:11:27.880 But but later on you do see some of these 0:11:28.160 --> 0:11:32.920 factories implementing dental checkups and some level of dental care 0:11:33.000 --> 0:11:35.720 for the individuals. So that's why my mind immediately thought 0:11:35.800 --> 0:11:37.880 went to like the idea of maybe like a mouthwash 0:11:38.640 --> 0:11:42.120 being instituted for for everybody, to what a degree that 0:11:42.200 --> 0:11:45.679 it would actually help, you know, I'm not sure. So 0:11:45.760 --> 0:11:49.760 I found a good post about Fossey jaw and the 0:11:49.760 --> 0:11:53.920 the actual medical progression here by Susan Isaac on the 0:11:53.920 --> 0:11:57.079 blog for the Library of the Royal College of Surgeons 0:11:57.120 --> 0:12:00.120 in England, and a lot of this post focus is 0:12:00.120 --> 0:12:04.000 on the experience of a surgeon named James Rushmore Would 0:12:04.080 --> 0:12:07.840 who wrote a medical article in eighteen fifty seven about 0:12:07.960 --> 0:12:11.520 his attempts to help a patient named Cornelia, who was 0:12:11.559 --> 0:12:14.280 a sixteen year old girl. She worked full time in 0:12:14.320 --> 0:12:16.880 a New York match stick factory for about two and 0:12:16.920 --> 0:12:19.360 a half years. And I will warn you this is 0:12:19.360 --> 0:12:21.400 going to get pretty graphic for a minute here, but 0:12:21.440 --> 0:12:23.920 I think it's important to to drive home what these 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:28.480 workers were facing, and so U consider yourself warned. Uh 0:12:28.520 --> 0:12:32.240 So quote in May eighteen fifty five, she was seized 0:12:32.240 --> 0:12:34.600 with a toothache and swelling on the right side of 0:12:34.640 --> 0:12:37.920 her lower jaw. To relieve the pain, first her gums 0:12:37.920 --> 0:12:41.160 were lanced and later a tooth was extracted, but the 0:12:41.200 --> 0:12:45.880 swelling gradually increased until a spontaneous opening formed under her jaw, 0:12:46.120 --> 0:12:50.600 which continuously discharged pus. Despite this, she continued to work 0:12:50.600 --> 0:12:53.240 in the factory until a week before she was admitted 0:12:53.280 --> 0:12:58.920 to Bellevue Hospital on seventeenth December eighteen fifty five. Uh So, So, 0:12:59.040 --> 0:13:02.520 once she's at Bellevue, she starts to have real difficulty eating, 0:13:02.520 --> 0:13:05.640 obviously because it's too painful for her to chew, and 0:13:05.679 --> 0:13:08.240 she had severe pain in the jaw and swelling of 0:13:08.280 --> 0:13:11.280 the face, and eventually would decided that the only way 0:13:11.320 --> 0:13:14.440 to save her was to remove the decaying bone on 0:13:14.480 --> 0:13:16.719 the right side of her jaw, and this is an intervention. 0:13:16.760 --> 0:13:19.680 At the time, they thought that you remove the decaying 0:13:19.720 --> 0:13:23.160 bone and that prevents the spread of the phosphorus poisoning 0:13:23.200 --> 0:13:24.880 to other parts of the body, like it prevents it 0:13:24.920 --> 0:13:27.760 spreading to the brain. So this surgery took place in 0:13:27.840 --> 0:13:32.600 January of eighteen fifty six. There was no anesthesia. He 0:13:32.720 --> 0:13:36.240 had to use what was called a chainsaw to cut 0:13:36.320 --> 0:13:38.520 down the middle of the jaw, and that this wouldn't 0:13:38.559 --> 0:13:40.800 be a motorized chain saw like we have today. This 0:13:40.840 --> 0:13:43.720 would be more like a chain or a wire pulled 0:13:43.720 --> 0:13:47.800 back and forth by hand to saw the bones. Isaac 0:13:47.880 --> 0:13:51.400 compares it to a big cheese wire. And then in 0:13:51.440 --> 0:13:54.240 the middle of the procedure, the chain broke and he 0:13:54.280 --> 0:13:56.360 had to get the rest of the jaw half off 0:13:56.440 --> 0:13:59.760 using for saws. So she survived the surgery and she 0:13:59.880 --> 0:14:02.680 was healing, but then the left side of her jaw 0:14:02.760 --> 0:14:06.439 started showing the same phosphorus poisoning symptoms the right had, 0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:08.320 and in the middle of February they had to go 0:14:08.400 --> 0:14:12.400 back in and remove the entire remaining lower jaw. As 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:14.560 she was treated with loudon um, and in the following 0:14:14.640 --> 0:14:17.520 days it says she received wine and quote a daily 0:14:17.720 --> 0:14:23.440 lead an opium wash. But amazingly, Cornelias survived the surgery 0:14:23.480 --> 0:14:25.840 and she was still able to move her tongue in mouth. 0:14:25.920 --> 0:14:29.920 Apparently she recovered to better health after this, and would 0:14:29.960 --> 0:14:33.520 mention that he apparently was proud he had somewhat preserved 0:14:33.560 --> 0:14:36.040 the appearance of her face despite having to remove the 0:14:36.160 --> 0:14:40.040 entire lower jaw. My goodness. But yeah, I mean, it's unbelievable, 0:14:40.120 --> 0:14:43.280 especially given the medical technology of the day. Like they 0:14:43.280 --> 0:14:46.400 didn't have antibiotics at this point. They couldn't give her that. 0:14:47.040 --> 0:14:49.040 So I'm sure a lot of people going in for 0:14:49.080 --> 0:14:51.440 these kind of surgeries probably didn't fare as well as 0:14:51.600 --> 0:14:55.520 Cornelia did. Uh. And the surgery is just as described 0:14:55.520 --> 0:14:58.800 as unimaginable to right, and and and and indeed we're 0:14:58.800 --> 0:15:01.560 seeing this carry out prob by an extremely gifted search 0:15:01.600 --> 0:15:04.000 and of the day. You know, not everybody was was 0:15:04.080 --> 0:15:06.600 lucky enough to have access to someone like that. Yeah, 0:15:06.600 --> 0:15:09.200 but so this is what tons of workers in these 0:15:09.240 --> 0:15:11.520 factories of the period we're facing. And one of the 0:15:11.520 --> 0:15:15.120 hardest things to understand is that it wasn't like nobody 0:15:15.200 --> 0:15:17.760 understood what was going on. You know. It wasn't like 0:15:17.920 --> 0:15:21.040 nobody knew that phosphorus could be bad for you. Oh yeah, 0:15:21.080 --> 0:15:24.760 I mean white phosphorus was already recognized as an irritant poison, 0:15:24.840 --> 0:15:28.640 and poison literature of the eighteen tins bone necrosis was 0:15:28.680 --> 0:15:31.960 reported as early as eighteen forty. By eighteen sixty nine, 0:15:32.000 --> 0:15:35.400 phosphorus wasn't use as a poison by criminals. And this 0:15:35.480 --> 0:15:38.200 duding wasn't doing large part because white phosphorus pace was 0:15:38.240 --> 0:15:41.480 being used in animal poisons like for you know, poisoning 0:15:41.480 --> 0:15:45.160 of rats and vermin and whatnot. Um and there was 0:15:45.240 --> 0:15:48.440 no cure. That was another reason it was again popular 0:15:48.520 --> 0:15:52.320 with with criminals, at least until an individual by the 0:15:52.400 --> 0:15:55.800 name of Jacques Person who lived in eighteen sixteen through 0:15:55.840 --> 0:15:59.800 eighteen eighty conducted experiments on dogs and found that turpentine 0:16:00.440 --> 0:16:03.160 could be It could be used to treat such poisonings 0:16:03.200 --> 0:16:06.480 as it hinders the him a globin attacking properties of 0:16:06.520 --> 0:16:09.560 phosphorus in the blood. Early in eighteen thirty nine. In fact, 0:16:09.640 --> 0:16:13.000 the hazards were to some degree appreciated within the industry. 0:16:13.440 --> 0:16:16.640 Uh The issue contributed to a major London strike in 0:16:16.760 --> 0:16:19.800 eighteen eighty eight, for example. Yeah, I'm gonna come back 0:16:19.800 --> 0:16:22.000 to that in detail in just a minute. And like 0:16:22.040 --> 0:16:24.680 I mentioned earlier, match factories began to offer free dental 0:16:24.760 --> 0:16:28.840 care and regular inspections for employees. Um I believe it 0:16:28.920 --> 0:16:32.680 is that that cranio facial paper actually had a photograph 0:16:32.880 --> 0:16:35.800 of one of these dental clinics from a match factory. 0:16:36.080 --> 0:16:38.440 And yet the use of white foster has continued until 0:16:38.480 --> 0:16:41.520 the early twentieth century, when an international ban came into 0:16:41.600 --> 0:16:44.880 place in I believe nineteen o six, and major international 0:16:44.920 --> 0:16:49.040 manufacturers followed suit over the following decade. Well, maybe we 0:16:49.040 --> 0:16:50.800 should take a quick break and then when we come back, 0:16:50.840 --> 0:16:53.280 we can talk more about the rebellion of the match 0:16:53.320 --> 0:17:02.120 stick factory workers and the strike of eighteen eighty Alright, 0:17:02.120 --> 0:17:05.160 we're back. Let's talk about the match sticks strike. Okay. 0:17:05.480 --> 0:17:09.399 So I was reading about the British campaign against conditions 0:17:09.400 --> 0:17:12.280 in match stick factories in the eighteen eighties in a 0:17:12.359 --> 0:17:16.080 short article by University of Bradford nursing and healthcare scholar 0:17:16.240 --> 0:17:20.400 named Catherine Best. And this was especially good because through 0:17:20.440 --> 0:17:22.840 it I found a link to an original document from 0:17:22.880 --> 0:17:27.560 the period. That's just amazing. Um, So Specifically, she is 0:17:27.600 --> 0:17:30.800 focused on the match stick girls who worked in the 0:17:30.840 --> 0:17:34.240 East End of London, often for fourteen hours a day 0:17:34.280 --> 0:17:38.760 for low pay under pretty miserable conditions. For example, employers 0:17:38.800 --> 0:17:42.760 would impose fines on the workers for all kinds of 0:17:42.760 --> 0:17:45.480 ways they screwed up and at the job, so like 0:17:45.760 --> 0:17:48.680 if they accidentally spilled matches on their bench, you could 0:17:48.680 --> 0:17:51.359 get a fine, or if you talk to the person 0:17:51.440 --> 0:17:53.480 next to you during a shift, you could get fined. 0:17:53.760 --> 0:17:56.320 So just all sorts of punitive measures to try and 0:17:56.760 --> 0:18:00.280 ensure production goes off without a without a stitch. Yes, 0:18:00.359 --> 0:18:04.240 and most importantly, there, of course, is this constant exposure 0:18:04.280 --> 0:18:07.480 to the now well known hazards of white phosphorus vapors 0:18:07.480 --> 0:18:10.320 like as we discussed, the negative health effects of white 0:18:10.359 --> 0:18:13.199 phosphorus were well known by this time, but also at 0:18:13.200 --> 0:18:17.080 this time they were not sufficient workplace safety laws in place, 0:18:17.160 --> 0:18:20.160 so there are no laws to protect the workers. Really, 0:18:20.240 --> 0:18:23.520 factory owners are just sort of on their honor, and 0:18:23.640 --> 0:18:26.080 of course many of them are going to decide, well, 0:18:26.080 --> 0:18:27.959 what am I going to make less money or am 0:18:28.000 --> 0:18:30.520 I going to subject my workers to this peril as 0:18:30.560 --> 0:18:32.560 one of the costs of doing business. You can guess 0:18:32.720 --> 0:18:34.600 which one a lot of them chose. Oh yeah, because 0:18:34.640 --> 0:18:37.240 you can also imagine workers and I mean the factory 0:18:37.280 --> 0:18:40.000 owners having an attitude of like, well, we'll do something 0:18:40.040 --> 0:18:42.760 about this later. Right now, we got to focus on 0:18:42.760 --> 0:18:46.240 on the profits. But of course, uh, the the white 0:18:46.240 --> 0:18:48.720 phosphorus poisoning that's going to come in every day for 0:18:48.800 --> 0:18:51.840 work on time, it's never going to fail to show up. 0:18:51.920 --> 0:18:54.639 That is a very good point. So then in the 0:18:54.720 --> 0:18:59.080 year eighteen eight, Annie Bissant wrote an expose of the 0:18:59.119 --> 0:19:03.000 conditions that Anton May, which Catherine Best points out, this 0:19:03.040 --> 0:19:06.680 is confusing, is somehow not the same as a different 0:19:06.880 --> 0:19:10.720 modern company called Bryant and May, which also makes matches. 0:19:11.359 --> 0:19:14.520 So so I guess whoever the modern one is, don't 0:19:14.680 --> 0:19:18.840 hold this story about this other company against them. But anyway, 0:19:18.880 --> 0:19:21.800 so Annie bisson wrote this article for a London socialist 0:19:21.880 --> 0:19:27.840 journal published on June and so she goes through explaining 0:19:27.880 --> 0:19:30.960 the impossibly low wages they get paid and how you 0:19:31.000 --> 0:19:33.919 know you can barely survive on them, and then she 0:19:33.960 --> 0:19:38.159 describes factory conditions, including all of the supposed infractions that 0:19:38.280 --> 0:19:41.800 workers get charged fines for, including the ones I mentioned 0:19:41.840 --> 0:19:45.240 a minute ago, but also things like quote one girl 0:19:45.359 --> 0:19:48.520 was fined for letting the web twist round a machine 0:19:48.640 --> 0:19:51.480 in the endeavor to save her fingers from being cut, 0:19:51.960 --> 0:19:54.199 and she was sharply told to take care of the 0:19:54.240 --> 0:19:58.720 machine quote never mind your fingers. Another who carried out 0:19:58.720 --> 0:20:02.760 the instructions and law to finger thereby was left unsupported 0:20:02.760 --> 0:20:06.119 when she was helpless. The wage covers the duty of 0:20:06.160 --> 0:20:09.360 submitting to an occasional blow from the foreman, one who 0:20:09.400 --> 0:20:12.679 appears to be a gentleman of variable temper and quote 0:20:12.720 --> 0:20:17.200 clouds them quote when he is mad. Bissan also describes 0:20:17.280 --> 0:20:21.159 this unbelievable episode I was getting so mad just reading 0:20:21.160 --> 0:20:25.600 about it, where the factory owner, Mr Theodore Bryant wanted 0:20:25.640 --> 0:20:29.080 to build a statue in honor of a Mr Gladstone. 0:20:29.119 --> 0:20:32.080 She doesn't say exactly who this is, and I'm not positive, 0:20:32.080 --> 0:20:35.080 but I think it probably refers to the British politician 0:20:35.200 --> 0:20:38.879 William Ewart Gladstone, who had been the Prime Minister of 0:20:38.880 --> 0:20:42.200 the UK several times in the late eighteen hundreds, and 0:20:42.320 --> 0:20:45.960 so the owner he likes this public figure, probably this politician. 0:20:46.040 --> 0:20:48.240 He wants to fund the creation of this statue and 0:20:48.320 --> 0:20:51.080 his honor and quote in order that his work girls 0:20:51.160 --> 0:20:54.640 might have the privilege of contributing. He stopped one shilling 0:20:54.680 --> 0:20:57.280 each out of their wages, and further deprived them of 0:20:57.320 --> 0:21:00.440 a half day's work by closing the factory quote giving 0:21:00.480 --> 0:21:04.120 them a holiday. Oh my god. You know we mentioned 0:21:04.560 --> 0:21:07.840 Dickens earlier, and it's amazing how you know it's as 0:21:07.880 --> 0:21:12.240 poorly as we perceive Ebenezer Scrooge prior to his m 0:21:12.640 --> 0:21:15.800 his his great change, Like Scrooge is nowhere near as 0:21:15.840 --> 0:21:18.280 bad as this guy is sounding. No, at least because 0:21:18.320 --> 0:21:21.199 because Scrooge at least got to like be mean to 0:21:21.280 --> 0:21:24.240 your face, like you got to fully acknowledge, like, Okay, 0:21:24.280 --> 0:21:26.880 my boss is mean, and he like knows he's mean. 0:21:27.800 --> 0:21:30.600 This guy is like, wouldn't you love the privilege of 0:21:30.680 --> 0:21:33.239 contributing to this statue that I want to build an 0:21:33.240 --> 0:21:35.879 honor of a politician. Well, I'll just dock your pay 0:21:36.040 --> 0:21:40.400 so that you can contribute. That's just that's that's unimaginable, 0:21:40.480 --> 0:21:42.720 And according to Pissan, this leads to some of the 0:21:42.720 --> 0:21:47.080 workers gathering as the statue is unveiled, bringing bricks with 0:21:47.160 --> 0:21:51.440 them and pelting it at it's unveiling, and then intentionally 0:21:51.560 --> 0:21:55.479 cutting themselves and smearing their blood on the marble. Because 0:21:55.600 --> 0:21:58.159 the statue they believe was paid for by their blood. 0:21:58.280 --> 0:22:00.680 Oh my god, my goodness. I don't know if there's 0:22:00.680 --> 0:22:03.680 a movie about this, but there should be absolutely, I mean, 0:22:03.720 --> 0:22:08.280 this is dramatic. And then at the end Bissant encourages 0:22:08.600 --> 0:22:11.520 a boycott of Bryant and May matches. No, no big 0:22:11.560 --> 0:22:14.320 surprise there. She's like, you know, we're gonna make them pay, 0:22:14.400 --> 0:22:16.800 and she writes, quote, Oh, if we had but a 0:22:16.880 --> 0:22:20.719 people's Dante to make a special circle in the inferno 0:22:20.920 --> 0:22:23.760