A match is a tool for starting a fire. Typically, matches are made of small wooden sticks or stiff paper. One end is coated with a material that can be ignited by friction generated by striking the match against a suitable surface. Wooden matches are packaged in matchboxes, and paper matches are partially cut into rows and stapled into matchbooks. The coated end of a match, known as the match "head", consists of a bead of active ingredients and binder, often colored for easier inspection. There are two main types of matches: safety matches, which can be struck only against a specially prepared surface, and strike-anywhere matches, for which any suitably frictional surface can be used.
Etymology
The word match derives from Old French mèche, referring to the wick of a candle. Historically, the term match referred to lengths of cord (later cambric) impregnated with chemicals, and allowed to burn continuously. These were used to light fires and fire guns (see matchlock) and cannons (see linstock) and to detonate explosive devices such as dynamite sticks. Such matches were characterized by their burning speed i.e. quick match and slow match. Depending on its formulation, a slow match burns at a rate of around 30 cm (1 ft) per hour and a quick match at per minute for unconfined to even per second for confined.
The modern equivalent of a match (in the sense of a burnable cord) is the simple fuse such as a visco fuse, still used in pyrotechnics to obtain a controlled time delay before ignition. The original meaning of the word still persists in some pyrotechnics terms, such as black match (a black-powder-impregnated fuse) and Bengal match (a firework akin to sparklers producing a relatively long-burning, colored flame). However, when friction matches became commonplace, the term match came to refer mainly to these.
History
Early matches A note in the Yuan and Ming-era scholar Tao Zongyi's describes a form of sulfur taper or match, small pieces of pinewood impregnated with sulfur, which he claims "impoverished court ladies" used in 577 during the conquest of the Northern Qi. During the 10th-century Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms interregnum, Tao Gu's Records of the Unworldly and the Strange stated: If there occurs an emergency at night it may take some time to make a light to light a lamp. But an ingenious man devised the system of impregnating little sticks of pinewood with sulfur and storing them ready for use. At the slightest touch of fire, they burst into flame. One gets a little flame like an ear of corn. This marvelous thing was formerly called a "light-bringing slave", but afterward when it became an article of commerce its name was changed to "fire inch-stick". Around the time of Marco Polo's supposed visit to China, such sulfur tapers were considered part of the distinctive products of Lin'an (now Hangzhou) and Zhou Mi's 1290 Antiquities of the Martial Forest ), while memorializing the traditions of the former Song capital, listed them prominently among the items sold in its markets. They were known as "candle starters" ) or "little burners" ).
Chemical matches
Before the use of matches, fires were sometimes lit using a burning glass (a lens) to focus the sun on tinder, a method that could only work on sunny days. Another more common method was igniting tinder with sparks produced by striking flint and steel, or by sharply increasing air pressure in a fire piston. Early work had been done by alchemist Hennig Brand, who discovered the flammable nature of phosphorus in 1669. Others, including Robert Boyle and his assistant, Ambrose Godfrey, continued these experiments in the 1680s with phosphorus and sulfur, but their efforts did not produce practical and inexpensive methods for generating fires.
A number of different ways were employed to light smoking tobacco: One was the use of a spill – a thin object something like a thin candle, a rolled paper or a straw, which would be lit from a nearby, already existing flame and then used to light the cigar or pipe – most often kept near the fireplace in a spill vase. Another method saw the use of a striker, a tool that looked like scissors, but with flint on one "blade" and steel on the other. These would then be rubbed together, ultimately producing sparks. If neither of these two was available, one could also use ember tongs to pick up a coal from a fire and light the tobacco directly.
The first modern, self-igniting match was invented in 1805 by Jean Chancel, assistant to Professor Louis Jacques Thénard of Paris. The head of the match consisted of a mixture of potassium chlorate, sulfur, gum arabic and sugar. The match was ignited by dipping its tip in a small asbestos bottle filled with sulfuric acid. This kind of match was quite expensive, however, and its use was also relatively dangerous, so Chancel's matches were never widely adopted for commonplace use.
This approach to match making was further refined in the following decades, culminating with the 'Promethean match' that was patented by Samuel Jones of London in 1828. His match consisted of a small glass capsule containing a chemical composition of sulfuric acid colored with indigo and coated on the exterior with potassium chlorate, all of which was wrapped up in rolls of paper. The immediate ignition of this particular form of a match was achieved by crushing the capsule with a pair of pliers, mixing and releasing the ingredients for it to become alight.
In London, similar matches meant for lighting cigars were introduced in 1849 by Heurtner who had a shop called the Lighthouse in the Strand. One version that he sold was called "Euperion" (sometimes "Empyrion") which was popular for kitchen use and nicknamed as "Hugh Perry", while another meant for outdoor use was called a "Vesuvian" or "flamer". The head was large and contained niter, charcoal and wood dust, and had a phosphorus tip. The handle was large and made of hardwood so as to burn vigorously and last for a while. Some even had glass stems. Both Vesuvians and Prometheans had a bulb of sulfuric acid at the tip which had to be broken to start the reaction.
In 1832, William Newton patented the "wax vesta" in England. It consisted of a wax stem that embedded cotton threads and had a tip of phosphorus. Variants known as "candle matches" were made by Savaresse and Merckel in 1836. John Hucks Stevens also patented a safety version of the friction match in 1839.
Friction matches Chemical matches were unable to make the leap into mass production due to their expense, cumbersome nature, and inherent danger. An alternative method was to produce the ignition through friction produced by rubbing two rough surfaces together. Two early examples were produced in France. In 1810, Baron Cagniard de la Tour produced the "phosphorus bottle", which used a sulfur-infused taper to extract partially oxidized phosphorus from a vial, which then produced a flame when struck against any firm surface. Another was François Derosne's 1816 , which similarly used a sulfur-tipped taper to scrape a tube internally coated with phosphorus. Both proved inconvenient and unsafe.
The first commercially successful friction match was invented by John Walker, an chemist and pharmacist in Stockton-on-Tees, England. This may have occurred during experiments in 1826. but his were first recorded in a note on a sale upon credit on 7 April 1827.. He changed the name to "friction lights" or "attrition lights" a few months later. (Despite the confusion of many later accounts, he never referred to them as "matches", "lucifers", or "Congreves".). He had developed a keen interest in trying to find a means of obtaining fire easily, creating variations on Chancel's dipping matches to assist local hunters. Several chemical mixtures were already known that would ignite by a sudden explosion, but it had not been found possible to transmit the flame to a slow-burning substance like wood. Having mixed his percussion powder with a Chancel match, Walker found the resulting match ignited during an accidental strike against his hearth. He at once appreciated the practical value of the discovery and started making friction matches, although he demurred from securing a royal patent, stating "I doubt not it will be a benefit to the public, so let them have it." He did not, however, make his own formulation public or even record it in his notes, such that it was necessary to later analyze his products to establish that they were wooden sticks 3 inches long by inches wide by inches high (7.6×0.4×0.1cm) dipped in sulfur and tipped with a mixture of equal parts of antimony trisulfide and potassium chlorate bound to the wood with gumwater allowed to dry in place. The sulfur's unpleasant odor was improved by the addition of camphor. Walker's matches were stored in a tin cylinder that included a piece of sandpaper ("glass-paper"). To light each match, the paper was folded in half and the match drawn through it. From 18271829, Walker sold a few hundred sets of matches at the price of 1 shilling 2 pence for 100 matches and the tin or 1 shilling flat for 84 matches and the tin. These first matches were widely publicized by Michael Faraday's lectures in London in 1829 and by journal articles the same year. However, they remained dangerous, with lit fragments sometimes falling to the floor and burning carpets and dresses, prompting bans on their production or sale in France and Germany.
The Scottish inventor Sir Isaac Holden produced an improved version of Walker's match and demonstrated it to his class at Castle Academy in Reading, Berkshire, in 1829. Holden did not patent his invention either but Samuel Jones, the father of one of his students and a London chemist, quickly did.. and began commercializing a version of Holden's product throughout Britain as the "Promethean" or "lucifer match" (, "light-bearer"). Its popularityand much lower price.prompted Walker to stop making his own formulation by 1830, while Richard Bell opened the first match factory in 1832 in London. Jones and Bell's lucifer matches were pirated in turn by Ezekial Byam in the United States. These matches continued to have unpleasant fumes, an unsteady flame, and could ignite explosively, sometimes throwing sparks a considerable distance. Nonetheless, they sold well and "lucifer" persisted as a genericized term for matches into the 20th century, with the song "Pack Up Your Troubles" including the lines "and smile, smile, smile while you've a lucifer to light your fag". Matches are still called "lucifers" in Dutch.
Charles Sauria, a chemistry student at the Collège de l'Arc in Dole, France, substituted white phosphorus for the antimony trisulfide in Walker, Holden, and Jones's matches in 1830 or January 1831. This formulation could light when struck against any surface, produced odorless toxic fumes, and needed to be stored in airtight metal containers to avoid accidental ignition. They quickly replaced the earlier sulfurous formulations. Sauria also did not patent his invention, which was marketed in Germany as "Congreves" after the English rocket pioneer William Congreve because of his management of the Imperial Continental Gas Association during the 1820s. This name became popular in Britain but they were more generally known in the United States as s, which gave its name to a progressive faction of the Democratic Party. In 1832, Samuel Jones adapted his regular phosphorus match to also produce "fuzees", slower burning matches for use with cigars and pipes.. The earliest American patent for the phosphorus friction match was granted in 1836 to Alonzo Dwight Phillips of Springfield, Massachusetts, while John Hucks Stevens pirated Jones's fuzees as "fusse cigar lights" in 1839.