History of matches
Matches are a method of creating fire consisting of combustible materials placed at the tip of a wooden splinter. Their fortunes soared with the success of pipe and cigarette tobacco They persist to this day as a stylish, if outdated, pyrotechnic device.
The modern match got its start when, in 1680, Englishman Robert Boyle discovered that phosphorus and sulpher will ignite if combined.
The first person to put this discovery into practice was John Walker who, in 1730, made the first friction match by combining potassium chloride and antimony sulfide. When ignited, this mixture produced a very foul odor and often exploded in a ball of fire causing Richard Pryor type injuries.
To remove the bad smell factories added white or yellow phosphorus which, as it turned out, was a deadly toxin. Workers exposed to large amounts of this phosphorus developed a condition called 'phossy jaw' which affected the teeth and jaw.
By the 1840s Gustaf Erik Pasch had developed a match using non-toxic red phosphorus and fifteen years later the safety match was created by seperating the striking components from the match head.
Today matches can be gotten for free at many bars because of the advertising potential of a hip packet of potential flame. Although the lighter, a relative newcomer on the scene, has some potential advantages over matches it can never beat the sheer film noir elegance of a flaming splinter.
Source- Moorshead Alexandra. History Magazine, Sept 2002.