(~2 minutes to read)
Almost since the first friction-ignited matches were invented in 1826, I’m sure parents have been warning their kids about matches. This weekend I learned that it’s reached the ridiculous point where kids will not or cannot use matches.
Originally, parental warnings might have been more to do with the dangers of white phosphorous than fire. These “Lucifers” were not only poisonous (and therefore potential murder “weapons”) but also the cause of a whole new industrial disease known as “phossy jaw”. Feel free to search the interweb for pictures of the disease’s effects…
It took worker action (not something that happened at a drop of the hat in the 19th century!) to get manufacturers to transition to non-poisonous but more expensive red phosphorous. Finland banned white phosphorous matches in 1872; the UK didn’t ban them until 1910, and Canada left it until 1914. The USA taxed white phosphorous matches out of existence.
Safety matches (created by separating the reactive ingredients between the head of the match and the striking surface) were developed between 1844 and 1855, pre-dating the strike-anywhere red phosphorous variety by many years.
But just because safety matches were called safety matches didn’t mean they were safe in any hands. Children (boys especially) have this magnetic attraction to fire, and matches make great toys, so they played with them.
The fire engine was invented shortly thereafter (kidding.)
And so homelessness may well have superseded phossy jaw in the minds of concerned parents everywhere. “Don’t play with matches” became the slogan for many a safety campaign.
Fast forward to 2016.
I volunteer with the Cub Scouts, and at camp this weekend we were teaching Cubs how to light a fire without matches. Conversation among the leaders turned to matches, and one of them revealed that in his personal experience, some kids these days either will not or cannot use matches. Parents have been so focused on the “Don’t play” mantra that they forgot that matches are actually useful tools, just like guns. (But that’s another topic!)
Why parents don’t warn their kids about the perils of playing with flint-and-steel or bow-and-drill I’ll never know.
In some cases, kids have taken the message on board so literally that when they’re introduced to a situation in which matches are used as a tool (to light a cooking fire for example), they refuse to try. In other cases, kids don’t know how to strike a match, and when they’re shown how, they’re scared to try in case that nasty ol’ flame at the end of the stick jumps up and burns them.
What next? Banning the use of corkscrews because they’re sharp and pointy, or can openers because they’re capable of cutting through sheet steel? We don’t prevent our kids from using knives to eat with, yet knives are sharp, pointy, dangerous things.
Please—among all the insanity of making our world a riskless society, can we teach kids responsible use of some of these innocuous implements?