Mr. Edward Prince, splint manufacturer, of Horseshoe Bay, Buckingham
township, is authority for the statement that there are about twenty-two
match factories in the United States and Canada, and that the daily
production--and consequent daily consumption--is about twenty-five
thousand gross per day. It may seem a queer statement to make that one
hundred thousand hours of each successive day are spent by the people of
the two countries in striking a light, but such is undoubtedly the case.
In each gross of matches manufactured there are 144 boxes, so that the
25,000 gross produces 3,600,000 boxes. Each box, at least those made
in the States, where a duty of one cent upon every box of matches is
levied--contains 100 matches, so that the number of matches produced and
used daily amounts to 360,000,000. Counting that it takes a second to
light each match--and it is questionable whether it can be done in less
time than that, while some men occupy several minutes sometimes in
trying to strike a light, particularly when boozy--to light the
360,000,000 would take just that number of seconds. This gives 6,000,000
minutes, or 100,000 hours. In days of twenty-four hours each it figures
up to 4,166 2-3, and gives eleven years and five months with a couple of
days extra, as the time occupied during every twenty-four hours, by
the people of North America--not figuring on the Mexicans--in striking
matches. Figuring a little further it gives 4,159 years time in
each year. The fact may seem amazing, but it is undoubtedly quite
correct.--_Ottawa Free Press_.
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A catalogue, containing brief notices of many important scientific
papers heretofore published in the SUPPLEMENT, may be had gratis at this
office.
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