The glowing, decaying jawbones of the Victorian match industry
In short: In the 1800s, the convenience of a 'strike-anywhere' match came with a horrific price. Factory workers suffered from a gruesome industrial disease that caused their jawbones to rot and glow in the dark. This era of production turned a simple household tool into a source of facial disfigurement and death.
The rise of the modern match industry in the early 19th century was driven by the addition of white phosphorus to matchstick heads. This chemical made matches significantly easier to ignite, sparking an enormous international demand for 'strike-anywhere' matches. However, this profitability was built on a foundation of extreme occupational hazard for the workers, particularly those in the poor who staffed the factories.
Workers developed a devastating condition known as 'phossy jaw' (phosphorus necrosis of the jaw). The disease caused unbearable abscesses, swollen gums, and the slow progression of exposed jaw bone. One of the most unsettling symptoms was an eerie greenish-white glow that the victims' gums would emit in the dark. If left untreated, the necrosis could lead to facial disfigurement, unbearable pain, and even fatal brain damage.
Medical records from 1858 began to document the severity of the condition. A notable case involved a 16-year-old girl in New York who worked in a match factory for two and a half years. By 1855, she suffered from a discharging abscess that required multiple surgeries. In 1856, a surgeon named James Rushmore Wood performed a radical procedure to remove her lower jaw bone without anesthesia, using a chain saw-like tool to divide the bone.
The industry's dark history persisted until roughly 1906, when the production of phosphorus matches was finally outlawed by the International Berne Convention. The transition away from white phosphorus marked a major turning point in industrial safety, ending a century of horrific health consequences for match makers.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: The Dark History of Matches
- Also: “Phossy jaw” and the matchgirls: a nineteenth-century industrial disease — Royal College of Surgeons
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