Matchgirls and the Extremely Ugly Story of Phossy Jaw

In Might 1855, a 16-year-old woman identified to historical past solely as Cornelia referred to as on the workplace of New York surgeon James Rushmore Wooden complaining of extreme toothache and swelling in the suitable aspect of her decrease jaw. Following normal process, Wooden lanced Cornelia’s jaw, extracted just a few enamel, and despatched her on her method. However Cornelia’s situation solely bought worse. A big abscess opened in her jaw and commenced discharging massive portions of foul-smelling pus, and he or she quickly grew to become unable to chew stable meals. When on December seventeenth she was admitted to Bellevue Hospital, Wooden found to his horror that a lot of her proper jaw had rotted away, the uncovered bone useless and spongy. Stranger nonetheless, the bone glowed an eerie inexperienced at nighttime. On January 19, 1856, Wooden determined to function, utilizing a wire noticed – and no anaesthetic – to chop away the diseased bone. However whereas the gums finally healed, the left aspect of Cornelia’s jaw quickly started to rot and ooze pus, forcing Wooden to function once more on February sixteenth. Cornelia was despatched house with a laudanum – a combination of wine and opium – for the ache, and by February twenty third the swelling lastly started to subside.

Cornelia would go on to make a full restoration, however many others weren’t so fortunate. Like many younger ladies of the age, Cornelia labored in a match manufacturing unit, the place so-called “Matchmaker’s Leprosy” or “Phossy Jaw” stricken as much as 11% of employees. Between the 1830s and 1910s, tons of of match employees would fall sufferer to this horrifying industrial illness, struggling everlasting disfigurement, madness, and even demise. It was an epidemic which might encourage huge labour actions and lay the groundwork for contemporary industrial hygiene and well being and security laws. That is the story of how a now-ubiquitous family merchandise modified the world.

Our story begins in 1669 with Hennig Model, an alchemist from Hamburg who, like all alchemists on the time, sought to find the Thinker’s Stone, a legendary substance stated to grant everlasting life and switch base metals into gold. Believing its deep yellow color to be by some means linked to gold, Model collected and boiled down numerous gallons of urine, yielding a sticky, pale-yellow paste. To his astonishment, this new substance gave off a pale inexperienced glow that by no means appeared to fade, and, when uncovered to air, spontaneously burst into flames. Model dubbed it phosphorus, from the Greek for “gentle bearing.” Phosphorus was the thirteenth chemical factor found – and the primary to be found in trendy instances.

Model, nevertheless, quickly misplaced curiosity in his discovery, and it was not till a decade later {that a} sensible utility for phosphorus was discovered. In 1680, Irish chemist Robert Boyle created the world’s first friction match, comprising a picket splint tipped in sulphur which was drawn by means of a folded piece of paper coated in phosphorus, inflicting it to ignite. Nevertheless, on the time phosphorus was too scarce and costly for Boyle’s invention to be commercially viable, and it quickly handed into obscurity.

It could be one other century earlier than a very sensible friction match was developed, remodeling a world through which most fires have been nonetheless lit utilizing flint, metal, and tinder. In 1826, John Walker, an apothecary from Stockton-on-Tees, England, was trying to develop a brand new explosive. Sooner or later, whereas stirring collectively a mix of antimony sulphide, potassium chlorate, gum, and starch, he observed {that a} blob of this combination had solidified on the tip of his stir stick. He scraped the stick throughout the ground with a purpose to dislodge the blob, whereupon it out of the blue burst into flames. Walker quickly started producing smaller variations to promote in his apothecary. However for causes unknown, he by no means patented his invention, which in 1829 was copied by London businessman Samuel Jones and offered underneath the commerce title Lucifers.

Lucifers proved wildly well-liked, and match factories started popping up throughout the British Isles, mainland Europe, and shortly North America. The introduction of moveable, dependable firelighting brought on the recognition of tobacco smoking to skyrocket, beginning a development that will final practically two centuries. Nevertheless, early Lucifers have been removed from good, giving off such noxious fumes that early matchboxes bore the warning “If potential, keep away from inhaling fuel. Individuals whose lungs are delicate ought to not at all use Lucifers.”

In 1830, French chemist Charles Sauria changed the antimony sulphide in Walker’s unique composition with white phosphorus, producing matches that have been simpler to ignite and produced much less odour. This grew to become the usual formulation for friction matches for practically a century. Nevertheless, the benefits of Sauria’s combination got here at a steep value as, it was quickly found, white phosphorus was extremely poisonous. Experiences abounded of infants dying after sucking on match heads, whereas a single field of matches yielded sufficient phosphorus to kill a grown man – a reality exploited in lots of a homicide or suicide. However the worst destiny was reserved for many who really made the matches.

By the tip of the Nineteenth Century, there have been 25 match-making factories throughout Britain, using greater than 4,000 individuals. Nearly all of these employees have been ladies, 35% of whom have been underneath the age of 18. Whereas manufacturing unit work in Victorian Britain was already grueling and poorly-paid, situations in match factories have been particularly grim. Shifts may last as long as 15 hours, whereas wages have been low and various in accordance on the kind of work carried out. Those that crammed frames with clean matchsticks and dipped them in match head composition have been paid 1 shilling – round 8 kilos at present – per 100 frames; those that lower the matchsticks to measurement obtained 2-3/4 pence per 432 bins crammed, whereas field packers obtained 1 shilling and 9 pence per 100 bins. Nevertheless, employees have been fortunate to take even these meagre quantities house, as they have been topic to a complete host of punitive fines – for instance, 3 pence for having soiled ft, having an untidy workbench, or speaking; 5 pence for being late; 6 pence for dropping a tray of matches; and a complete shilling for having a burnt match on one’s workbench. The cutters and field packers additionally needed to pay the boys who introduced the completed frames from the drying ovens, and have been anticipated to produce glue and brushes out of their very own wages.

Worse nonetheless, the matchmakers labored in poorly ventilated factories with no protecting gear, exposing them to excessive ranges of poisonous phosphorus vapour. This poisonous publicity may end in respiratory bother or “phossy lung”; seizures or “phossy mind”; anemia or “phossy marrow”; and, lastly, the dreaded bone necrosis often known as “phossy jaw.”

The primary identified case of phossy jaw was recorded in 1838 by Austrian doctor Wilhelm Lorinser. The affected person, a feminine match employee, had been uncovered to phosphorus vapours over a five-year interval. In 1844, Lorinser recorded 22 instances of phossy jaw, and established the pathology of the situation. Phosphorus vapour, he deduced, entered the sufferer’s jaw by means of rotten enamel and different abscesses, whereupon it certain itself to the bone – which is essentially composed of calcium phosphate – and poisoned it, forming porous, necrotic tissue often known as sequestra. Signs normally appeared after 2-3 years of publicity, and the outcomes may very well be ghastly, as a British surgical report from later within the century describes in vivid element:

“The affected person was a 35-year-old matchmaker who offered with nice exterior swelling and in a debilitated state from incapability to take stable meals. Extending from ear to ear alongside the road of the jaw was a sequence of ulcerated openings, from which there was profuse discharge and thru any of which a probe may attain useless bone. Contained in the mouth, the toothless alveolar course of was seen bared of sentimental components in its entire extent, the bone being tough and brownish-black. The gum gaped extensively away from the useless jaw and had receded in order to depart it above the pure stage of that bone, a probe may very well be handed simply both in entrance or behind the bone towards the sinuses of the neck. Below chloroform, the jaw was eliminated by dividing it on the symphysis and dragging the 2 halves out individually.”

Such radical surgical procedure was, in lots of instances, completely obligatory, for residual phosphorus within the bone would in any other case forestall the jaw and gums from therapeutic, inevitably leading to a gradual and agonizing demise from an infection. Certainly, round 20% of those that suffered from phossy jaw finally died of the situation. And even when surgical procedure succeeded, victims typically confronted continual ache, issues with consuming and talking, and the social penalties of disfigurement. In 1892, an exposé within the British newspaper The Star revealed that one London matchmaker pressured one in all its employees to give up after she got here down with phossy jaw. Whereas they continued to pay her wages whereas she recovered from her surgical procedure, they and each different match manufacturing unit refused to re-hire her, arguing that her look would frighten the opposite employees.

It’s estimated that round 11% of match employees throughout this era have been stricken with phossy jaw. The situation grew to become so widespread that as early as 1852, Charles Dickens penned an article titled One of many Evils of Matchmaking decrying the trade’s practices and their horrific well being results. Nevertheless, as Dickens additionally famous, some factories did implement security measures to mitigate phosphorus toxicity, comparable to enhancing air flow on the manufacturing unit ground and making match dippers put on sponges soaked in alkaline resolution over their mouths and noses. However such practices have been removed from common, and the scourge of phossy jaw carried on unabated. What makes this particularly tragic is {that a} discovery had been made only a few years earlier which may have single-handedly ended the epidemic. In 1847, Austrian chemist Anton von Schrötter introduced the invention of purple phosphorus, a type of the factor that was far much less poisonous and simply absorbed than common white phosphorus. Sadly, it was costlier to provide and ignited at the next temperature, so most producers refused to change over.

Finally, a number of nations acknowledged the hazard of white phosphorus and banned its use in matchmaking, beginning with the Grand Duchy of Finland in 1872. And in 1892, Germany, Norway, and Sweden handed laws mandating enough air flow in match factories and requiring employees to rinse their fingers and mouths on the finish of their shifts. Nevertheless, it will take a historic labour motion for such legal guidelines to be adopted in Britain.

The motion towards the British match trade started on June 23, 1888 when social activists Annie Besant and Herbert Burrows printed an exposé titled White Slavery in London in her weekly newspaper The Hyperlink. The article centered on London match firm Bryant & Might, whose enterprise practices epitomized the abuses and excesses of the trade:

“Mr. Theodore Bryant, to point out his admiration of [former Prime Minister William] Gladstone and the greatness of his personal public spirit, bethought him to erect a statue to that eminent statesman. So that his workgirls may need the privilege of contributing, he stopped 1s. every out of their wages, and additional disadvantaged them of half-a-day’s work by closing the manufacturing unit, “giving them a vacation”. (“We don’t need no holidays”, stated one of many women pathetically, for – for sure – the poorer workers of such a agency lose their wages when a vacation is “given”.) So livid have been the women at this merciless plundering, that many went to the revealing of the statue with stones and bricks of their pockets, and I used to be aware of a want that a few of these bricks had made an impression on Mr. Bryant’s – conscience. Later they surrounded the statue – “we paid for it” they cried savagely – shouting and yelling, and a grotesque story is advised that some lower their arms and let their blood trickle on the marble paid for, in very fact, by their blood. There appears to be a curious feeling that the nominal wages are 1s. larger than the cash paid, however that 1s. every week continues to be saved again to pay for the statue and for a fountain erected by the identical Mr. Bryant.”

In response, the Bryant & Might administration tried to pressure their workforce to signal a paper contradicting Besant and Burrows’s article. When sure employees refused to signal, they have been instantly dismissed, prompting 1400 ladies to stroll off the job. The Matchgirls’ Strike of 1888 had begun.

Whereas the corporate provided to reinstate the fired workers, the strikers quickly demanded additional concessions, together with an finish to punitive fines. A strike committee together with commerce unionist Sarah Chapman met with the corporate administration, however once they refused to budge, the strikers turned to Annie Besant for assist. Aided by Besant’s activism, the strike gained vital publicity and assist throughout Britain. On July 11, a delegation of strikers met with three British MPs, whereas Liberal MP Charles Bradlaugh spoke in assist of the strike in Parliament. Whereas Bryant & Might initially stood agency, manufacturing unit proprietor William Bryant, himself a distinguished Liberal supporter, finally caved to public stress. On July 16, the strike committee, led by Besant, hammered out the employees’ calls for. Punitive fines and deductions have been to be abolished; employees would be capable of take grievances on to the administration moderately than going by means of the foremen; and, lastly, lunches have been to be eaten in a separate room to forestall the meals from being contaminated by phosphorus. Bryant & Might accepted the concessions, and the strike got here to an finish. Shortly thereafter, the employees shaped the Union of Girls Matchmakers – on the time the most important union of ladies and women in Britain.

But regardless of the strike’s success, using white phosphorus in matches continued, and match employees continued to endure from phossy jaw. In 1891, Parliament handed regulation requiring match corporations to tell the federal government of any instances of phossy jaw amongst their employees. Sadly, these laws have been poorly enforced, permitting many instances to go unreported. In 1894, Bryant & Might have been fined for failing to report 17 instances of phossy jaw. Nevertheless, the high-quality amounted to solely £25, and the abuses continued.

But when regulation couldn’t finish using white phosphorus, then maybe competitors may. In 1891, William Sales space, the founding father of the Salvation Military, opened his personal match manufacturing unit, which used safer purple phosphorus and paid its employees higher wages. Salvation Military matches have been marketed as “Lights in Darkest England”, their labels assuring patrons that they have been “manufactured underneath wholesome situations” and have been “completely free from the phosphorus which causes Matchmaker’s Leprosy.” The enterprise was initially profitable, with many retailers and shoppers caving to the stress to boycott white phosphorus matches. Sadly, using purple phosphorus made Salvation Military matches thrice costlier than white phosphorus matches, and regardless of considerably decreasing manufacturing prices by means of automation, the group struggled to stay aggressive. The manufacturing unit lastly closed in 1900, and the next yr was taken over by Bryant & Might.

By this time, nevertheless, the corporate had lastly stopped utilizing white phosphorus – not due to any regulation or social motion, however moderately the invention of phosphorus sesquisulfide, a compound as low-cost and efficient as white phosphorus however far much less poisonous. In 1911, the American Diamond Match Firm independently developed the identical formulated however, in a widely-praised transfer, forfeited patent rights in to permit rivals to provide security matches and drive white phosphorus off the market. On the identical time, authorities regulation lastly caught up with the trade. In 1906, Finland, Denmark, France, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Italy, The Netherlands, and Germany signed the Berne Conference banning using white phosphorus in matches – one of many first worldwide bans on an industrial product to be enacted. This was adopted in 1908 by the White Phosphorus Matches Prohibition Act in Britain and in 1912 by the White Phosphorus Act in america.

The 1888 Matchgirls’ Strike not solely paved the best way for the banning of phosphorus matches, but additionally sparked a wider motion that led to the passing of numerous labour legal guidelines and the rise of the UK Labour Occasion. Right this moment, all friction matches use purple phosphorus and instances of phossy jaw and phosphorus poisoning are comparatively uncommon, seen primarily in those that usually deal with sure fertilizers and incendiary weapons. Circumstances have additionally been reported in these taking drugs containing bisphosphonates, compounds used – sarcastically – to deal with osteoporosis. However the closest trendy parallel to the phossy jaw epidemic is the case of the Radium Women of the 1910s and Twenties who painted glowing, radioactive dials on clocks and watches and suffered equally grotesque deaths and disfigurements – and to study extra about this horrifying story, please try our earlier video Glowing within the Darkish – the Radium Women.

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