August 1996 Blazer

Fire and Brimstone in the second ward

THE HISTORY BLAZER R'EMTS OF UTAH'S PAST FROM THE Utah State Historical Society 300 Rio Grande Salt Lake City. CT 84101 ( 801) 533- 3500 FAX ( 801) 333- 3503 I Fire and Brimstone in the Second Ward ALTHOUGTHH E FIRST PRACTICAL FRICTION MATCHES were marketed in 1827, they were considered a luxury. Moreover, they smelled tenible and posed a threat to both health and safety. Mormon settlers in Utah usually " lit their candles at night by a taper and a hot coal from their firesides." This was not always convenient, of course. Alexander Neibaur, who opened a dental practice in Salt Lake City in 1848, needed additional income to support his family. ' Noting the great scarcity of matches and their high cost, he decided to attempt their manufacture. His knowledge of chemistry enabled him to fabricate crude sulphur matches which he advertised," along with his dental practice in the Deseret News in November 185 1. Later, in partnership with William S. Godbe, he advertised " Percussion Matches. Encourage Home Manufacture- and you save money. The subscriber manufactures matches in the 13th Ward, that give double satisfac-tion-- i. e., 80 in a bunch in lieu of 40 foreign made. Considerable allowance made to those that wish to retail throughout the Temtory. All kinds of produce and lumber, received in exchange at the market price. Let Utah support her own matches, and that will lessen foreign catches. Wholesale and retail by Neibaur & Godbe." This was probably the first major match- making operation in Utah. Much more is known about the Second Ward Match Factory established about 1875 by Swen W. Anderson in an adobe house at 621 South Third East. He and ' a few ... neighbors who were interested in his project.. . . would go up City Creek Canyon and chop down.. . trees. " After the logs had been seasoned, they were cut into 2lh- inch lengths and then split into match- sized sticks. Frank Yeager, Sr., interviewed in 1950, worked as a youth in the factory. From his description, the chemical process used in the Second Ward Match Factory is not entirely clear, since brimstone is an obsolete term for sulfur, not a different ingredient. According to Yeager, the sulfur and brimstone came from City Creek Canyon where " it was found under clay or gravel or sometimes crusted over little pools of stagnant water." A sulfur mixture was boiled in large kettles in the factory, a process that permeated the neighborhood with the well- known " rotten- eggs" odor of heated sulfur. The first fiction matches were made from a mixture of antimony sulfide, potassium chlorate, gum arabic, and starch. Anderson probably used something similar, because his matches, like the first ones made in England, produd " a great flare and shower of sparks when struck, often burning people's skin or clothing, " and the fumes, if inhaled, could cause " choking, coughing, or even suffocation. " There was good reason to call matches " Lucifers. " At Anderson's the matchsticks were handdipped in the solution, dried, and packaged in quantities of 50 for sale to grocery stores, or customers wuld buy them directly from the factory. ( more) These matches ignited easily. It was dangerous to carry them in a pocket where an accidental rubbing could set a person's clothing on fire. " They were also dangerous if nibbled by rats or mice." This, it was believed, caused the first fire in the Second Ward Match Factory in 1879. It burned the entire contents of the building and the roof, leaving only the adobe walls. Swen Anderson decided to rebuild and ' sent to Sweden for the latest ... machinery in match making." This equipment probably was used to produce the safety match that J. E. Lundstrom had developed in Sweden in 1855. Anderson reorganized his company in 1880 as the Great Western Match Manufactunhg Company and sold stock in it. Then, about 1890, another fire gutted the plant, and ' all the wooden machinery which had been brought over from Sweden at great expense was in ashes." Anderson's match- making business came to an end, and the adobe house was repaired for use as a residence. Fire and brimstone no longer threatened the neighborhood in any immediate sense at least. Sources: Leon L. Watters, Z% e Pioneer Jews of Utah ( New York: American Jewish Historical Society, 1952); J. Cecil Alter, Utah, ttre Storied Domain ( Chicago, 1932), vol. 1; Desmet Navs Magazine, December 17, 1950. HISTORY BLAZER is produced by the Utah State Historical Society and funded in part by a grant from the Utah Statehood Cenkmial Commission. For more information about the Historical Society telephone [phone] ( MBM)