The first "friction match" was invented by English chemist John Walker in 1826.[5] Early work had been done by Robert Boyle and his assistant, Godfrey Haukweicz[6] in the 1680s with phosphorus and sulfur, but their efforts had not produced useful results. Walker discovered a mixture of antimony(III) sulfide or stibnite, potassium chlorate, gum, and starch could be ignited by striking against any rough surface. Walker called the matches congreves, but the process was patented by Samuel Jones and the matches were sold as lucifer matches. The early matches had a number of problems: the flame was unsteady and the initial reaction was disconcertingly violent; additionally, the odor produced by the burning match was unpleasant. It is described as a firework odor -- the pungent smell of sulfur dioxide. Lucifers reportedly could ignite explosively, sometimes throwing sparks a considerable distance. The term persisted as slang in the 20th century (for example in the First World War song Pack Up Your Troubles) and in the Netherlands today matches are still called lucifers.
In 1830, Frenchman Charles Sauria added white phosphorus to remove the odor. These new matches had to be kept in an airtight box but were popular. Unfortunately, those involved in the manufacture of the new matches were afflicted with phossy jaw and other bone disorders, and there was enough white phosphorus in one pack to kill a person. There was a vociferous campaign to ban these matches once the dangers became known.
Noiseless matches
The noiseless match was invented in 1836 by the Hungarian János Irinyi, who was a student of chemistry.[7] An unsuccessful experiment by his professor, Meissner, gave Irinyi the idea to replace potassium chlorate with lead dioxide[8] in the head of the phosphorus match.[7] He liquefied phosphorus in warm water and shook it in a glass foil, until it became granulated. He mixed the phosphorus with lead and gum arabic, poured the paste-like mass into a jar, and dipped the pine sticks into the mixture and let them dry. When he tried them that evening, all of them lit evenly. Irinyi thus invented the noiseless match. He sold the invention to István Rómer, a match manufacturer. Rómer, a Hungarian pharmacist living in Vienna, bought the invention and production rights from Irinyi for 60 forints. The production of matches was now fully underway. István Rómer became rich and Irinyi himself went on to publish articles and a textbook on chemistry and founded several match factories.[7]
Re-formulation to remove white phosphorus
The early matches, including the noiseless match, were dangerous to both end users and the workers that made them. White phosphorus has a tendency to stick to the skin; the associated burns carry a greater risk of mortality than other forms of burns because of the absorption of phosphorus into the body through the burned area, resulting in liver, heart and kidney damage, and in some cases, multiple organ failure.
The search for a replacement for white phosphorus led to what was known as the "safety match." However, this term is potentially confusing nowadays, as it covers both the modern safety match and the modern strike-anywhere match. These two different types of matches are discussed separately below.
Both of these types of matches were more expensive to make than white phosphorus-based matches, and customers continued to buy white-phosphorus based matches. Laws prohibiting the use of white phosphorus in matches generally had to be passed before these safer types of matches came into widespread usage. Finland banned white-phosphorus based matches in 1872; Denmark in 1874; Sweden in 1879; Switzerland in 1881 and the Netherlands in 1901.
An agreement, the Berne Convention, was reached at Bern, Switzerland, in 1906 to prohibit the use of white phosphorus in matches.[9] This required each country to pass laws prohibiting the use of white phosphorus in matches. Great Britain passed a law in 1908 prohibiting its use in matches after 31 December 1910. The United States did not pass a law, but instead placed a "punitive tax" on white phosphorus-based matches, one so high as to render their manufacture financially impractical, in 1913. India and Japan banned them in 1919; and China in 1925.
The safety match
Household safety matches, including one burned match.
The safety match was invented in 1844 by the Swede Gustaf Erik Pasch (1788-1862) and was improved by Johan Edvard Lundström (1815-1888). Johan Edvard and his younger brother Carl Frans Lundström (1823-1917) started a large scale match industry in Jönköping around 1847, but the improved safety match was not introduced until around 1850-55. In 1858 their company produced around 12 million match boxes.
Their safety is due to the separation of the reactive ingredients between a match head on the end of a paraffin-impregnated splint and a special striking surface, and the replacement of white phosphorus with red phosphorus. The striking surface is composed of typically 25% powdered glass, 50% red phosphorus, 5% neutralizer, 4% carbon black and 16% binder; and the match head is typically composed of 45-55% potassium chlorate, with a little sulfur and starch, a neutralizer (ZnO or CaCO3), 20-40% of siliceous filler, diatomite and glue.[10] Some heads contain antimony(III) sulfide so they burn more vigorously. Safety matches ignite due to the extreme reactivity of phosphorus with the potassium chlorate in the match head. When the match is struck the phosphorus and chlorate mix in a small amount forming something similar to the explosive Armstrong's mixture which ignites due to the friction.
The Lundström brothers - Johan Edvard and Carl Frans - had obtained a sample of red phosphorus from Arthur Albright at The Great Exhibition, held at The Crystal Palace in 1851, and made safety matches with it.[11] They misplaced the matches and did not try them until just before the Paris Exhibition of 1855. They were still usable.[11]
The Swedes long held a virtual worldwide monopoly on safety matches, with the industry mainly situated in Jönköping, in 1903 called Jönköpings & Vulcans Tändsticksfabriks AB.[12] In France, they sold the rights to their safety match patent to Coigent Père & Fils of Lyon, but Coigent contested the payment in the French courts, on the basis that the invention was known in Vienna before the Lundström brothers patented it.[12] The British match manufacturer Bryant and May visited Jönköping in 1858 to try to obtain a supply of safety matches, but it was unsuccessful. In 1862 it established its own factory and bought the rights for the British safety match patent from the Lundström brothers.[12]
Safety matches are classified as dangerous goods, "U.N. 1944, Matches, safety," and they are not universally forbidden on aircraft; however, they must be declared as dangerous goods and individual airlines and/or countries may impose tighter restrictions.[13]
The longest known burn time of a single safety matchstick is over 50 seconds.[14]
The strike-anywhere match
Two French chemists, Savene and Cahen, developed a safety match using phosphorus sesquisulfide. They proved that the substance was not poisonous, that it could be used in a "strike-anywhere" match, and that the match heads were not explosive.[15] They patented a safety match composition in 1898 based on phosphorus sesquisulfide and potassium chlorate.[15] Albright and Wilson developed a safe means of making commercial quantities of phosphorus sesquisulfide in the United Kingdom in 1899 and started selling it to match makers.[16]
In 1901 Albright and Wilson started making phosphorus sesquisulfide at their Niagara Falls plant for the U.S. market, but American manufacturers continued to use white phosphorus based matches.[15] The Niagara Falls plant stopped making it until 1910, when the United States Congress forbade the shipment of white phosphorus matches in interstate commerce.[16] At the same time the largest producer of matches in the USA granted free use, in the USA, of its phosphorus sesquisulfide safety match patents.[16] In 1913 Albright and Wilson also started making red phosphorus at Niagara Falls.[16]
Strike-anywhere matches are classified as dangerous goods, "U.N. 1331, Matches, strike-anywhere;" and their carriage is illegal on both passenger aircraft and cargo-only aircraft.[13]
The energy in match heads
The chemicals in the heads of matches can be quite powerful in large numbers: Thirty thousand (30,000) match heads are sufficient to produce a 10-to-15-foot (3 to 5 m) fire column, compared to a 40-foot (10 m) burst with a million. On the television program MythBusters, special-effects experts Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage demonstrated that a satchel of sixty thousand (60,000) match heads could send a 6-pound (3 kg) bowling ball flying 1,500 feet (500 m).[17] They also demonstrated 1000000 match heads.
