2023 Author: Bryan Walter | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-21 22:24
An ordinary match, with all its external simplicity, came into use relatively recently, replacing the flint and magnifying glass as the main portable source of fire. The earliest attempts to create it are mentioned in Chinese literature and date back to the 6th century AD. These matches were pine sticks with a sulfur head. They could not be ignited by friction, but they caught fire relatively quickly, for example, from a smoldering coal, and their light was enough to navigate in a dark room.
The prerequisites for the emergence of "chemically" matches, which ignited due to the interaction of several reagents, arose in the 17th century, when the alchemist Hennig Brand discovered white phosphorus. This substance is known not only for the fact that it glows in the dark, but also for the fact that it is easily ignited in air. Many scientists and inventors, including Robert Boyle, tried to get matches based on white phosphorus, but they did not succeed until the 19th century.
The first real chemical match was created in 1805 by Jean Chancel. On a thin chip, he applied a mixture of berthollet's salt (potassium chlorate), sulfur and vegetable gum. When the head of such a match came into contact with sulfuric acid, sulfur oxidized and ignited, the gum acted as an adhesive, and also contributed to a longer and more uniform combustion. Such a match was quite dangerous to use, therefore it did not receive the necessary popularity. The idea of chemical matches developed for some time after that, and their composition was almost always based on berthollet's salt and sulfuric acid.
Tin box in which John Walker's matches were sold, 1827.
A later version of Walker's matches.
The Lucifers, England, 1833.
The real breakthrough was the invention of the first "grating" match, which ignited by friction. The first such example was François Derosnay's "briquet phosphorique", but it was extremely unsafe. Full success in this field was achieved by the English chemist and pharmacist John Walker in 1826. Its composition included antimony sulfide, berthollet's salt and gum, and a match was ignited by rubbing the head against sandpaper. Walker sold his first match on April 7, 1827, and over the next two years, about two hundred more boxes. The inventor did not patent his work, so matches during his lifetime did not bring him either fame or money. Walker's invention was developed by Sir Isaac Holden and Samuel Jones, their version was called "Lucifer matches." They burned very unevenly, the head often fell off after being ignited, which led to fires or, at best, to burnt carpets and clothes. "Lucifers" also did not take root as a mass product, but the word has become firmly established: in Holland and Belgium, matches are still called "lucifers". Charles Soria took another step in improving the matches: he replaced antimony sulfide with white phosphorus. Such matches burned well, perhaps even too well: they had to be stored in sealed metal boxes, and they could catch fire even when rubbed against each other. Nevertheless, they managed to win popular love, and until the beginning of the 20th century, the composition of the match head remained practically unchanged.
