History of the Match

• Humans had used controlled fire to modify their environment for thousands of centuries before means were discovered to activate fires chemically. At some time long before the beginning of recorded history, people in widely separated parts of the world learned how to spark fires at first by the friction of rubbing two sticks together, and later (and more easily) with, flint and steel.

• In 1669, Brand discovered phosphorus by preparing it from urine. Phosphorous was soon used in match heads.

• In 1805 the match was invented by a French chemist named Jean Chancel (assistant to Professor L. J. Thénard of Paris). As is the way with history, this bold statement pushes a great many experiments under the carpet, but Chancel is the man usually credited with the deed, although about the only resemblance between his device and the modern match is that the end result is a burning stick. Nevertheless, Chancel's invention was a substantial improvement over the existing method of firelighting, which involved igniting wood shavings from sparks struck from a flint and steel. If you have ever tried this, you'll know that even under ideal conditions it's not an easy task - especially if you're desperate for a cigarette.

  Chancel, using materials readily available in the early 1800s, based his match around a wooden splint tipped with sugar. To our modern eyes this may seem to be a curious choice, but Chancel knew that, once lit, sugar burns with a very hot flame. The problem, as five minutes with the kitchen sugar bowl will reveal, is to get the crystals to ignite in the first place.

  Once Chancel's sugar was burning, then, it would keep going long enough to ignite the wooden splint. His problem was to provide the initial burst of heat, and he solved this by mixing the sugar with another white crystalline substance, potassium chlorate. This is the stuff that is found in chlorate tablets for the treatment of sore throats.

  The clever bit was to dip the coated tip of the splint into the bottle of concentrated sulphuric acid that you kept (very carefully) in your coat pocket. This caused the potassium chlorate to decompose into an unpleasant yellow gas, chlorine dioxide. This not only smells like a cross between chlorine and burnt sugar, but also has the endearing property of exploding on contact with hot glass, sparks, alcohol, or indeed any organic material, such that it often appears to detonate for no particular reason. In the presence of sugar and wood, it detonates with gusto, providing in a flash the initial kick required to set light to the waiting sugar molecules. Once the sugar is blazing away, the wooden stick catches fire and the match is alight.

• In 1810, Cagniard de Latour invented his so called "Phosphorus Bottle" which contained partially oxidized phosphorus and was used in conjunction with a splint tipped with sulphur which was ignited by friction.

• 1816 was the year of invention of the phosphorous match (the friction matches that did not require a bottle or other apparatus to ignite the splint) by François Derosne.

• In 1828 there was the invention of a rather dangerous match called a "Promethean", patented by Samuel Jones (1801-1859) of London. It had a small glass bulb with sulphuric acid, and the bulb was coated with potassium chlorate, sugar and gum, wrapped in a paper spill. You break the glass bulb with your teeth to 'strike' this match. Dentists loved it. Charles Darwin used it and was much taken by it. Heurtner also marketed a version of these as Vesuvians.

• In 1830, a French chemist from Paris, Charles Sauria, created a "friction match" made by adding white phosphorous. Sauria's matches had no odor, but they made people sick with a ailment dubbed "phossy jaw". White phosphorous is poisonous.

• In 1832, small phosphorus matches were manufactured in Germany; they were extremely hazardous. They could ignite with a series of explosions that scattered dangerous bits of fire over the carpet. They would also explode when trodden upon, which increased the danger of having them around.

• Also in 1832 the "fusee" was invented by Samuel Jones and consisted of a friction head on a cardboard splint soaked in potassium nitrate, which would keep smouldering after ignition. It was intended specifically for lighting cigars! Later they were used for setting off explosives safely. The original "vesta match" (William Newton, 1832) was a wax taper tipped with a friction composition, giving a long-burning taper. The later Swan Vestas had wooden splint soaked in wax.

• Also in 1832 Richard Bell established the first British match factory in London. Bell's matches are still produced today, but the original firm has since been incorporated in Bryant & May's firm. Bell started producing the new phosphorus match that had been invented by Charles Sauria. The head of the match was made of a mixture of sulphur, chlorate of potash, sulphide of antimony and phosphorus and had the great advantage that it would strike on anything hard. 

• Between 1830 and 1834 several people in different countries invented white phosphorus-based matches, which became known as Congreves or Lucifers. Jakob Friedrich Kammerer (Germany) is often credited with the first P-based friction match, although Charles Sauria had made them two years earlier (1828) in France, and Hungary also claims Janos Irinyi as the inventor!

• In 1836, János Irinyi of Hungary replaced potassium chlorate with lead oxide and obtained matches that ignited quietly and smoothly. So you can say he was the inventor of the "Noiseless" Match.

• Also in 1836, a patent was registered in the United States by a shoemaker with the name of Alonzo D Phillips (Springfield, Massachusetts) for the manufacturing of friction matches called 'Loco focos'. A Loco-foco (supposed to mean 'self-lighting') was originally a self-igniting cigar patented in New York in 1834 (and probably the original exploding cigar). It then became applied to the Lucifer match. It was later applied to a political party, the Democrats, after an incident at a party meeting in 1835 at which opponents of the radical element within the party turned out the gas lights, but the radicals promptly produced candles which they lit with loco-focos.

• In 1861 Bryant & May starts production in London.

• In 1882 Maguire & Paterson starts production in Dublin.
• In 1888, the first continuous automatic match machine was patented by Ebenezer Beecher.

• In 1890 the Salvation Army exposed that yellow phosphorus, used then in the manufacture of matches, was a massive health hazard.

• In 1891 William Booth founded his new model match-factory, where they used red instead of yellow phosphorus. He labelled them "Lights in Darkest England", but as they were more expensive they didn't catch on.

• In 1892 (August 23) book matches were patented by Joshua Pusey of Lima, Pennsylvania.

• In 1898, a French chemist devised a mixture called phosphorus sesquisulphide (P₄S₃), which made the perfect safety match and is used to this day.

• Also in 1898, "Strike-anywhere" matches invented by Henri Sévène and Emile David Cahen in France.

• In 1906 an International Convention was signed in Berne to ban white phosphorus, although many countries had already done so.

• In 1910, the Diamond Match Company patented the first nonpoisonous match in the U.S., which used a safe chemical called sesquisulfide of phophorous. United States President William H. Taft publicly asked Diamond Match to release their patent for the good of mankind. They did on January 28, 1911, Congress placed a high tax on matches made with white phosphorous.

• In 1910 white phosphorous matches are outlawed in England.

• In 1989 Maguire & Paterson stops production in Dublin.

• In 1992 Braynt & May closes last factory in UK.