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CITY OF DUBOIS Page 51
The best description of this factory is by a son of Julius Terpe,
and this is his story:
"The Smiths of Taylortown, above Luthersburg, were the
original owners of the factory, and father bought them out. Mr.
Smith had two boys, Harry, and I can't recall the name of the other
one. I remember father asking Dr. Spackman about the boys, what they
done, and he said they made fiddles all day and played them all
night.
"Now about the match making. We made that old school
house into matches. You remember it was built of hewn pine logs.
They seemed to be free of knots and were very straight grained. They
were sawed in match lengths, I presume about two inches long. They
were in blocks about six to ten inches square. Then there was a
machine to put them through to mash the ends, so they would not
split clean through when they were split for matches. They were run
through this machine twice, as they had to be split both ways, so as
to make the match size. Of course they were all square matches.
"Then, when the blocks were prepared this way, the next
thing was to split them into matches. There was a machine with a
knife to split them. It was worked with a lever. When the lever was
raised, it was fed by a spring to feed the block in the machine. The
lever was pressed down, and the little slab was loosed from the
block, but the first treatment kept it from splitting clear through.
This lever was worked until the whole block was split that way; then
the block was changed and split the other way.
"Then we used a long slim knife, and these large blocks
were counted one hundred forty-four matches to a block. Counted
twelve rows, then inserted the knife and pressed them apart, but not
hard enough to cut them loose from the block. After the counting
this way, they were counted the other way, and parted so that the
whole block still held together, but was in blocks of one hundred
forty-four matches, twelve by twelve.
"Then there were shelves of rough boards in a frame,
and then these were put on these boards or frame with the base down.
Then they were dipped in a brimstone mixture. The brimstone, or
sulphur, was heated and in a liquid form and these blocks dipped, I
think, about one fourth inch, as that was what held the fire to
start the wood to burn. After these were dipped, then they were put
back on the boards and left stand in these frames until thoroughly
dry. Now the next treatment was to mix the material for the heads,
to cause them to ignite. This was a dangerous part, as there were
liable to be explosions, and the phosphoric acid was sure to catch
fire as soon as exposed to the air. So it was necessary to keep it
in liquid as you were mixing it, so as to have it perfectly free
from the air.
"After mixing this matter, it was called the heads,
then these blocks were dipped again just merely touching the liquid,
as a very little bit was required.
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