1903 - THE MATCH GIRLS WITH ROTTING JAWS, LONDON
This photo was taken in 1903 inside the Bryant & May match factory in Bow, East London.
Look at the young women's faces. Their jaws are swollen, rotting, glowing in the dark. They are teenagers — 14, 15, 16 years old. This disease was called "Phossy Jaw."
Their job was dipping matches into white phosphorus. White phosphorus is poison. Every day they breathed it. First their teeth fell out. Then their gums turned green and black. Then their entire jawbone rotted and had to be cut out by a doctor with no painkiller. Some died screaming.
The factory owners knew. They knew since 1880 that white phosphorus kills. But it was cheap. Safer red phosphorus cost 3 times more. So they kept using white.
These girls worked 14 hours, 6 days a week, for 4 shillings. If they talked, they were fined. If they dropped a match, they were beaten. Their faces glowed at night from the phosphorus — they called them "ghosts" on the streets of London.
In 1888, 1,400 of them went on strike. All teenagers. Led by a 16-year-old girl named Sarah Chapman. They marched to Parliament with their swollen faces and said: "We would rather starve than rot."
London was shocked. And finally, in 1908, Britain banned white phosphorus — because of these girls.
This was not medieval times. This was 1903 in London, the richest empire on earth.
They were just teenage girls working in a factory… but their courage forced an entire nation to change.
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