A quiz question · medium
What was 'phossy jaw', the disease behind the 1888 London matchgirls' strike?
Safe red phosphorus existed; white was cheaper. The 1,400 strikers won in a fortnight and helped launch New Unionism — but Britain only banned the poison in 1908.
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The Matchgirls' Strike of 1888 and Phossy Jaw, the Disease That Glowed in the Dark The women who made Bryant & May's matches worked with white phosphorus, which rotted the jawbone — 'phossy jaw', a disfiguring, sometimes fatal necrosis whose lesions glowed greenish in the dark. In July 1888, 1,400 of them walked out. They won in a fortnight, lit the fuse of Britain's New Unionism — and it still took twenty more years to ban the poison.
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