Perhaps your job aint so bad — Victorian matchmakers and the “phossyjaw”In 1826 an

Perhaps your job aint so bad — Victorian matchmakers and the “phossyjaw”In 1826 an English chemist named John Walker invented the first friction (strike) match.  An ingenious invention, before the match people had to make due with various tools such as flints and sparklers.  The match became a common household item, taken for granted every time someone lit up a smoking pipe, lighted a candle, or started a fire.  However there was a dark underside to the match which, like other trades during the industrial revolution, revealed an even greater culture of exploitation in Victorian society.After the invention of the match, matchmaking factories popped up all over Europe and America as demand for the product soared.  The process of making a match was simple, thus factories mostly hired those who were unemployable in other industries; the poorest of the poor, women, and young children.  They were paid very little and worked hard, long hours.  Perhaps the greatest downside to being a Victorian Era matchmaker was working with deadly chemicals.  In the 1800’s, matches were made by dipping wooden sticks in a solution of white phosphorus.  A dangerous chemical, there was enough white phosphorus in a pack of matches to kill a man.  Of course in the industrial age employers often cared little for the safety of their employees, so matchmakers were constantly exposed to phosphorus.  Perhaps the matchmaker’s worst nightmare was the contraction of a disease called “phossyjaw”.A condition most common with matchmakers, phossyjaw was the gradual necrosis and roting away of the teeth and jaw due to phosphorus poisoning.  First the gums would swell, then abscesses would form, and eventually the teeth would fall out as the jawbone itself began to rot.  An interested side effect of white phosphorus, often the teeth and jaw of victims with phossyjaw would glow, usually a whitish green.  The only cure for phossyjaw was the removal of the jaw bone, an incredibly debilitating disfigurement which left the victims with a life of hardship and suffering.  Around 20% of those afflicted died.Eventually phossyjaw made its way to the spotlight in 1888 when matchmakers in London went of strike demanding better working conditions.  Government and private health agencies conducted thorough investigations into the disease, resulting in much publicity on the plight of the matchmaker.  Eventually factories began to discontinue the use of white phosphorus as safer alternatives were invented.  By the turn of the century white phosphorus matches were outlawed in most countries.   -- source link

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