It is stated that the Chinese and other nations made alloys of nickel long before nickel itself was known to be a distinct metal; they had found, by experiment, that when ores of copper and zinc were mixed with a particular kind of mineral and smelted, {21} a white alloy was obtained; but this also proves the general statement already made, that the German-silver manufacture was originated by means of new observations. It was by a more skilful, but similar mode of procedure that Cronstedt isolated the metal itself, and thus laid a definite basis of improvements in the manufacture of its alloys. No art is probably more antique, or remained longer exempt from the influence of science, than that of match making and obtaining a light. Many adult persons can remember the primitive and old-fashioned tinder-box, which had passed, with its flint and steel, from one generation to another without any material improvement. Phosphorus, it is true, was definitely discovered at least as early as the year 1669, but it was not applied to match making till about 1833. Since then the progress of invention has been so rapid that there are now numerous manufactories which produce many millions per day of phosphorus matches; for instance, those of M. Pollak, at Vienna, and of M. Fürth, in Bohemia, consume together more than 20 tons of phosphorus annually, and give employment to about 6,000 persons, and as one pound of phosphorus suffices for about one million German matches (or 600,000 English ones), those two makers alone produce the astonishing number of 44,800 millions of matches yearly.