I have heard old men say that the mere easy use of
friction-matches saves every day for each active man and woman
ten minutes of life. I think that is true. You are not old
enough to remember the adventures of the boy called out of his
bed in the morning to go and fetch a pan of coals from the next
neighbor’s. The lad tumbles into his clothes, plows through the
snow, finds that Mrs. Smith’s luck has been better than his
mother’s, and the careful ashes of her hearth have preserved the
vestal fire. A glowing brand is given him in his warming-pan,
and he returns in triumph home. The alternative would have been
to strike flint against steel, not to say against knuckles,
till a reluctant spark fell on tinder equally reluctant, till
this was fanned by careful breath till it would light a match
which would light a candle. The journey to Mrs. Smith’s was, on
the whole, light in comparison. Does one trivial invention save
twenty minutes a day in each household, ten minutes to a man,
ten minutes to a woman? That is a saving for this nation of more
than twice the amount of work which Cheops put upon his pyramid,
and so much addition to the real resources of the world is made
by that one invention.--EDWARD EVERETT HALE.
(1751)
See PRECAUTION.
=Lad with Ready Answer=--See EARLY RELIGION.
=Lamb, The, Slain=--See CHRIST THE LAMB.