lo-fi & lovely
A Timeline of The History of Matches (Matchsticks)
577AD China. Small sulfur-tipped slats of pinewood are later reported to be seen used by "impoverished court ladies" during the earlier conquest of Northern Qi.
950AD China. From a book by Tao Gu, The Records of the Unworldly and the Strange "If there occurs an emergency at night, it may take some time to make a light to light a lamp. But an ingenious man devised the system of impregnating little sticks of pinewood with sulfur and storing them ready for use. At the slightest touch of fire, they burst into flame. One gets a little flame like an ear of corn. This marvelous thing was formerly called a "light-bringing slave," but afterward when it became an article of commerce its name was changed to 'fire inch-stick.'"+
1669 German Physician and Alchemist Hennig Brand discovers the flammable nature of phosphorus.
1680s Irish physicist "Robert Boyle and his assistant, Ambrose Godfrey, continued these [phosphorus] experiments ... but their efforts did not produce practical and inexpensive methods for generating fires."++
1805 Parisian Assistant Professor (to Louis Jacques Thénard) Jean Chancel, invents the first modern self-lighting match. Secret spices include potassium chlorate, sulfur, gum arabic, and sugar. Ignition occurs via dipping the head in an asbestos-lined bottle filled with sulfuric acid. It was both an expensive & dangerous proposition.
1826 John Walker of Stockton-on-Tees, England, a chemist, and druggist, invents the friction match.
1828 Samuel Jones of London patents his Promethean Match. The rig was thus: "a small glass capsule containing a chemical composition of sulfuric acid colored with indigo and coated on the exterior with potassium chlorate, all of which was wrapped up in rolls of paper. The immediate ignition of this particular form of a match was achieved by crushing the capsule with a pair of pliers, mixing and releasing the ingredients in order for it to become alight."+++
1829 Scottish inventor Sir Isaac Holden improves Walker's match. Holden fails to patent this match, but one Samuel Jones does not--running to the patent office with a 'similar' thing. These 'similar' things were shortly sold as Lucifer Matches. They're violent, unsteady, and stink to the high heavens.
1830 Frenchman Charles Sauria substitutes white phosphorus for the antimony sulfide; thus replacing Lucifers.
1832 Englishman William Newton patents the "wax vesta." Wherein a phosphorus tip stood at the end of a wax-covered cotton thread stem.
1832 Samuel Jones introduces fuzees for lighting cigars and pipes.
1836 American Alonzo Dwight Phillips of Springfield, Massachusetts, garners the first US patent for the phosphorus friction match.
1836 Savaresse and Merckel manufacture and sell versions of WaxVestas marketed as "candle matches"
1839 Back to America, a similar invention to SJ's fuzees was patented by John Hucks Stevens.
[NOTE: fusee (also fuzee) A large-headed match capable of staying lit in strong wind.++++]
1839 American John Hucks Stevens patents a safety version of the friction match. He is seen as the inventor of the wooden match as we know it.
1843 William Ashgard replaces the sulfur with beeswax. IT SMELLS BETTER.
1844 in Sweden, Gustaf Erik Pasch patents the world's first true safety match, using a specially-designed striking surface. Essentially, some chemicals are in the match head, some separate yet equally needed ones are in the striking surface. They complete each other. It's kinda sexy.
1862 Charles W. Smith replaces beeswax with Paraffin. "Parlor matches" are born.
1870 Everyone and their cousin seems to begin fireproofing the splints with fire-retardant chemicals such as alum, sodium silicate, and/or other salts. These begin to be referred to as "drunkard's matches," because now fumbling is less painful, Rummy.
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What you are about to read would not be at all, if not for my initial dalliance into matchstick art--models to be precise. You can read
On Pat Acton, Matchstick Marvels, & the Art (& History) of Matchstick Models if you'd like. In that write-up, you'd read: "EDITOR'S NOTE: (7/19) This post was edited at 2:43am after it was published at 12:01am containing a slight error in matchstick history."
Suffice to say, It was glaringly apparent that I needed to bone up on my match & matchstick histories. Matches and matchsticks... for our purposes here, please consider them one-in-the-same as we will not be making mention of paper matches--which are useless for tobacco purposes outside of cigarettes.
Also, since this is a premium tobacco blog first & foremost, I must say that a match(stick) is a fine way to light both cigars & pipes. One thing to bear in mind is to strike then let the flame settle; allowing for the burning-off of chemicals on the match head which might adversely affect tastes, flavors, and smells. Think of it as lighting up with the wood, as if it's a miniature spill.
Another note bearing mention is that attempting to light a match out-of-doors, particularly for a tobacco amount of time, really does show you how breezy it just about always is. It's a lot like how riding a bicycle will show you how un-flat roads are. Here's a quote from Ernest Hemingway: “It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them."
If you're a soft flame proponent such as I, take a Bic or Djeep outside with you. No sweat. But we are here for the promised "A Timeline of The History of Matches," so I must digress. As a matter of fact--digress nothing--I'll simply plug the timeline right atop all of this so you'll see it immediately. This is in case it's some sort of scholarly or at least inquisitive emergency which has brought you here.
@kaplowitzmedia
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FOOTNOTES
+Needham, Joseph (1 January 1962). Science and Civilization in China: Volume 4, Physics and Physical Technology; Part 1, Physics. Cambridge University Press. pp. 70–71
++Carlisle, Rodney (2004). Scientific American Inventions and Discoveries
+++Wikipedia, wikipedia.org/wiki/Match
++++ Lexico, https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/fusee
