The control of fire was the first and perhaps greatest of
humanity’s steps towards a life-enhancing technology.
To early man, fire was a divine gift randomly delivered in
the form of lightning, forest fire or burning lava.
Unable to make fire for themselves, the earliest peoples
probably stored fire by keeping slow burning logs alight or by carrying charcoal in
pots.
How and where man learnt how to produce flame at will is
unknown.
It was probably a secondary invention, accidentally made
during tool-making operations with wood or stone.
Studies of primitive societies suggest that the earliest
method of making fire was through friction.
European peasants would insert a wooden drill in a round
hole and rotate it between their palms. This process could be speeded up by
wrapping a cord around the drill and pulling on each end.
The Ancient Greeks used lenses or concave mirrors to concentrate the
sun’s rays and burning glasses were also used by Mexican Aztecs and the
Chinese.
Percussion methods
of fire-lighting date back to Paleolithic times, when some Stone Age tool-makers
discovered that chipping flints produced sparks.
The technique became more efficient after the discovery of
iron, about 5000 years ago In Arctic North America, the Eskimos produced a
slow-burning spark by striking quartz against iron pyrites, a compound that
contains sulphur.
The Chinese lit their fires by striking porcelain with bamboo.
In Europe, the combination of steel, flint and tinder remained
the main method of fire-lighting until the mid 19th century.
Fire-lighting was revolutionised by the discovery of
phosphorus, isolated
in 1669 by a German alchemist trying to transmute silver into gold.
Impressed by the element’s combustibility, several 17th century
chemists used it to manufacture fire-lighting devices, but the results were
dangerously inflammable.
With phosphorus costing the equivalent of several hundred
pounds per ounce, the first matches were expensive.
The quest for a practical match really began after
1781 when a group of French chemists came up with the Phosphoric Candle or Ethereal
Match, a sealed glass tube containing a twist of paper tipped with phosphorus.
When the tube was broken, air rushed in, causing the
phosphorus to self-combust.
An even more hazardous device, popular in America, was the Instantaneous Light
Box — a bottle filled with sulphuric acid into which splints treated with chemicals were dipped.
The first matches resembling those used today were made in
1827 by John Walker, an English pharmacist who borrowed the formula from a
military rocket-maker called Congreve.
Costing a shilling a box, Congreves were splints coated with
sulphur and tipped with potassium chlorate.
To light them, the user drew them quickly through folded
glass paper.
Walker never patented his invention, and three years later
it was copied by a Samuel Jones, who marketed his product as Lucifers.
About the same time, a French chemistry student called
Charles Sauria produced the first “strike-anywhere” match by substituting white
phosphorus for the potassium chlorate in the Walker formula.
However, since white phosphorus is a deadly poison, from
1845 match-makers exposed to its fumes succumbed to necrosis, a
disease that eats away jaw-bones.
It wasn’t until 1906 that the substance was eventually banned.
That was 62 years after a Swedish chemist called Pasch had
discovered non-toxic red or amorphous phosphorus, a development exploited commercially
by Pasch’s compatriot
J E Lundstrom in 1885.
Lundstrom’s safety matches were safe because the red
phosphorus was non-toxic; it was painted on to the striking surface instead of
the match tip, which contained potassium chlorate with a relatively high ignition temperature
of 182 degrees centigrade.
America lagged behind Europe in match technology and
safety standards.
It wasn’t until 1900 that the Diamond Match Company bought a
French patent for safety matches — but the formula did not work properly in the
different climatic conditions prevailing in America and it was another 11 years
before scientists finally adapted the French patent for the US.
The Americans, however, can claim several “firsts” in match
technology and marketing.
In 1892 the Diamond Match Company pioneered book matches.
The innovation didn’t catch on until after 1896, when a brewery had
the novel idea of advertising its product in match books.
Today book matches are the most widely used type in the US,
with 90 percent handed out free by hotels, restaurants and others.
Other American innovations include an anti-after-glow
solution to prevent the match from smouldering after it has been blown out; and the
waterproof match, which lights after eight hours in water.
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