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Revision of the OED is a long-term project. Entries in oed.com which have not been revised may include: The Bryant and May strike has remained ghettoised within labour history and, in particular, denied connection to new unionism. Even feminist historians failed the match women; they were reluctant, according to Raw, to compromise their own credibility as serious scholars working on muscular subjects, albeit with a gendered perspective, by association with such a tired old saw as the Bryant and May strike. The match women have not been hidden from history but hidden by history.
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Photomechanical reproduction of 'Matchgirl Strikes' in front of Bryant and May's factory, showing strikers campaigning for better working conditions, c. 1900
For those readers who know nothing of the Bryant and May strike, let alone its myths, the usual tale told is that on 23 June 1888, the then famous secularist-malthusian turned fabian-cum-‘socialist’ Mrs Annie Besant published an article in the small circulation The Link denouncing the terrible working conditions, low wages and illegal system of fines prevailing at Bryant and May (a hugely successful company whose shareholders included the famous bourgeois feminist Mrs Millicent Garrett). Strike a Light – Arts & Heritage is a Community Interest Company which creatively explores heritage through life stories, project themes and local memories with diverse audiences. William Booth organised conducted tours of MPs and journalists round this 'model' factory. He also took them to the homes of those "sweated workers" who were working eleven and twelve hours a day producing matches for companies like Bryant & May. The bad publicity that the company received forced the company to reconsider its policy. In 1901, Gilbert Bartholomew, managing director of Bryant & May, announced it had stopped used yellow phosphorus. Primary sources (1) Annie Besant, The Link (23rd June, 1888) One aspect of this religious focus appears as small amulets in the shape of a fire-steel found in graves, often with Þórr's Hammer amulets: In short, the idea that a fabian Lady Bountiful in the shape of Mrs Annie Besant (during her brief five-year period as a ‘socialist’) descended on the politically ignorant matchgirls to lead them to an isolated victory against their particular Bryant and May employers is a nonsense.
Invented in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands, fire pistons or syringes work by the compression of air. When exactly this method originated is unclear, but it is also assumed to be prehistoric. Fire pistons consist of a hollow cylinder made of wood, bamboo, animal horns, antlers, or metal. Tinder is placed in the tube and a piston with an airtight seal is rapidly pushed into it. The air inside the cylinder is compressed and the pressure and temperature are increased until the tinder combusts. The same principle is used in a diesel engine to ignite fuel in a cylinder. Its inventor Rudolf Diesel got the idea for his design from observing the use of a Southeast Asian fire piston. But first, using hitherto neglected contemporary sources, she demolishes the great myth of Mrs Annie Besant leading the strike. corrections and revisions to definitions, pronunciation, etymology, headwords, variant spellings, quotations, and dates; A box of ‘Rupee Taendstiikker’ matches, sulphur-dipped and made with yellow, phosphorus. The box is decorated with Indian rupee coins, produced for export to India; made at Christiania Taendstikfabrik, Heggedal, Norway, 1874-1895. Photograph of two Maori people making fire with a fire-plough, the woman holding the hearth, the man using the plough, Aotearoa (New Zealand)The second major type of fire-steel found in the Viking Age is one influenced by Eastern Baltic art. Some have been found in West Scandinavia, where they represent imports. The eastern type of firesteel has an ornate handle, usually of bronze, with a flat plate of steel attached at the bottom edge. The bronze handle many times represents two mounted figures, facing away from one another, although when less-skilled metalworkers copied this fashion the copies often became much less distinguishable. These fire-steels are used along with a long, narrow striking stone, and stones found with these often show a pronounced groove down which the steel was slid to create sparks. Quite the contrary. From her first appearance on the public stage as a militant atheist, and all through her ‘socialist’ phase, Mrs Annie Besant was always fiercely opposed to strike action. In her Link article she called for a consumer boycott against Bryant and May. In another article, she even derided the very idea of a strike: That fire-making was important in Viking society is certainly undeniable. For cooking, for warmth, for light, the fire was an indispensable part of civilization. It is unsurprising, as a result, that we find the fire-steel has a religious context as well as its practical one. The strike fund was real and was definitely organised by Annie Besant with WT Stead and Fabian help. However, it was not crucial to the strike’s success. As so few of the matchgirls (if any) were sole breadwinners, they could all have survived the three weeks of the strike with family help. [ 2]
A: Why, a girl was dismissed yesterday; it had nothing to do with Mrs. Besant. She refused to follow the instructions of the foreman, and as she was irregular anyway, she was dismissed.
While true touchwood does not grow in North America, apparently other shelf-fungi from birch trees will work as well. Experimentation with various tree fungi, using the preparation methods described for touchwood, should determine which fungi in your local area will work best. Fire-Making Kits Annie Besant, William Stead, Catharine Booth, William Booth and Henry Hyde Champion continued to campaign against the use of yellow phosphorous. In 1891 the Salvation Army opened its own match-factory in Old Ford, East London. Only using harmless red phosphorus, the workers were soon producing six million boxes a year. Whereas Bryant & May paid their workers just over twopence a gross, the Salvation Army paid their employees twice this amount. Rather than Mrs Annie Besant leading the matchgirls’ strike, she tried to quash it with a consumers’ boycott, but once it took place and proved successful, she was happy to represent the matchgirls at the 1889 TUC conference. Percussion fire-starting is the method that seems most commonly to have been in use in the Viking Age: it certainly is the only one that leaves good traces in the archaeological record. This method utilizes a piece of high-carbon steel and flint (or other hard stone that experiences conchoidal fracturing to produce sharp edges, including quartz, quartzite, chert) plus a flammable substance that will ignite with a low-temperature spark and hold the ember well. To use this method, experienced percussion fire-makers make a small "nest" of tinder, which can be a variety of easily-flammable materials, such as flax tow, shredded hemp rope, dry grass, shredded fibrous tree-bark (very often juniper bark for the Vikings), etc. This "nest" should be about the size of a hen's egg, and should be both dry and near to hand. The actual fire should be laid with small kindling, ready to have the burning tinder "nest" inserted into it.
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