Page:A short history of social life in England.djvu/356

336 Fire Matches daily increases, and the manufactory in Soho has now become the daily resort of persons of the first fashion and consequence in town, who express themselves highly gratified with the utility and ingenuity of these curiosities." The first successful phosphorus matches were named "Lucifer," from their supposed dealings with the Evil One. "Matches that light themselves will find no place in my house," cried an indignant woman in 1829. "Give me my old-fashioned tinder-box." People were gravely warned of their dangers, so that the general use of matches was delayed till nearly 1840.

These are but a few of the great innovations that characterised the dawn of the new century: