A match is a stick (shaft, straw) made of flammable material, equipped with an incendiary head at the end, used to produce an open fire.
Matches are a relatively recent invention of mankind; they replaced flint and steel about two centuries ago, when looms were already working, trains and steamships were running. But it was not until 1844 that the creation of safety matches was announced.
Before a match broke out in the hands of a man, many events happened, each of which contributed to the long and difficult path of creating a match.
Although the use of fire dates back to the dawn of mankind, matches are believed to have been originally invented in China in 577 during the Qi Dynasty, which ruled northern China (550-577). The courtiers found themselves under military siege and left without fire; they invented them from sulfur.
But let's find out the history of this everyday thing in more detail...
A description of these matches is given by Tao Gu in his book “Evidence of the Extraordinary and Supernatural” (c. 950):
“If something unexpected happens overnight, it takes some time. Insightful man I simplified small pine sticks by soaking them in sulfur. They were ready to use. All that remains is to rub them on an uneven surface. The result was a flame as big as an ear of wheat. This miracle is called "the servant clothed with light." But when I started selling them, I called them fire sticks.” In 1270, matches were already freely sold on the market in the city of Hangzhou.
In Europe, matches were invented only in 1805 by the French chemist Chancel, although already in 1680 the Irish physicist Robert Boyle (who discovered Boyle's law) coated a small piece of paper with phosphorus and took the already familiar wooden stick with a sulfur head. He rubbed it on the paper and as a result, a fire broke out.
The word "match" comes from old Russian word knitting needle - a sharpened wooden stick, or splinter. Initially, knitting needles were the name given to wooden nails that were used to secure the soles of shoes. At first, in Russia, matches were called “incendiary, or samogar matches.”
Sticks for matches can be either wooden (soft woods are used - linden, aspen, poplar, American white pine...), as well as cardboard and wax (cotton rope impregnated with paraffin).
Collecting match labels, boxes, matches themselves and others with them related items called phylumenia. And their collectors are called phylumenists.
According to the method of ignition, matches can be grated, which are ignited by friction against the surface of a matchbox, and non-grated, which are ignited on any surface (remember how Charlie Chaplin lit a match on his trousers).
In ancient times, to make a fire, our ancestors used the friction of wood against wood, then they began to use flint and invented flint. But even with it, lighting a fire required time, a certain skill and effort. By striking the steel against the flint, they struck a spark that fell on the tinder soaked in saltpeter. It began to smolder and from it, using dry kindling, the fire was fanned
The next invention was the impregnation of a dry splinter with molten sulfur. When the head of sulfur was pressed against the smoldering tinder, it burst into flames. And she was already setting fire to the hearth. This is how the prototype of the modern match appeared.
In 1669, white phosphorus, which was easily ignited by friction, was discovered and was used in the production of the first match heads.
In 1680, the Irish physicist Robert Boyle (1627 - 1691, who discovered Boyle's law), coated a small piece of phosphorus with such phosphorus and took the already familiar wooden stick with a sulfur head. He rubbed it on the paper and as a result, a fire broke out. But unfortunately, Robert Boyle did not draw any useful conclusion from this.
Chapselle's wooden matches, invented in 1805, had a head made of a mixture of sulfur, berthollet salt and cinnabar red, which was used to color the head. Such a match was lit either with the help of a magnifying glass from the Sun (remember how in childhood they burned out drawings or set fire to carbon paper), or by dripping concentrated sulfuric acid onto it. His matches were dangerous to use and very expensive.
A little later, in 1827, the English chemist and apothecary John Walker (1781-1859) discovered that if you coat the end of a wooden stick with certain chemicals, then scratch it on a dry surface, the head lights up and sets the stick on fire. The chemicals he used were: antimony sulfide, bertholet's salt, gum and starch. Walker did not patent his "Congreves," as he called the world's first matches that were lit by friction.
The discovery played an important role in the birth of the match white phosphorus, taken by retired Hamburg soldier Henning Brand in 1669. After studying the works of famous alchemists of that time, he decided to get gold. As a result of the experiments, a certain light powder was accidentally obtained. This substance had amazing property glow, and Brand called it "phosphorus", which in Greek means "light-bearing".
As for Walker, as often happens, the pharmacist invented matches by accident. In 1826, he mixed chemicals using a stick. A dried drop formed at the end of this stick. To remove it, he struck the floor with a stick. Fire broke out! Like all slow-witted people, he did not bother to patent his invention, but demonstrated it to everyone. A guy named Samuel Jones was present at such a demonstration and realized the market value of the invention. He called the matches “Lucifers” and began selling tons of them, despite the fact that there were some problems associated with “Lucifers” - they smelled bad and, when ignited, scattered clouds of sparks around.
He soon released them to the market. The first sale of matches took place on April 7, 1827 in the city of Hikso. Walker made some money from his invention. His matches and "Congreves", however, often exploded and were unpredictably dangerous to handle. He died in 1859, aged 78, and was buried in Norton Parish Church cemetery, Stockton.
However, Samuel Jones soon saw Walker's "Congreves" matches and decided to start selling them as well, calling them "Lucifers". Perhaps due to their name, Lucifers matches became popular, especially among smokers, but they also had an unpleasant odor when burning
There was another problem - the head of the first matches consisted of only phosphorus, which ignited perfectly, but burned out too quickly and the wooden stick did not always have time to light up. We had to return to the old recipe - a sulfur head and began to apply phosphorus to it to make it easier to set fire to the sulfur, which in turn set fire to the wood. Soon they came up with another improvement to the match head - they began to mix chemicals that release oxygen when heated with phosphorus.
In 1832, dry matches appeared in Vienna. They were invented by L. Trevani; he covered the head of a wooden straw with a mixture of Berthollet salt with sulfur and glue. If you run such a match over sandpaper, the head will ignite, but sometimes this happened with an explosion, and this led to serious burns.
The ways to further improve matches were extremely clear: it was necessary to make the following mixture composition for the match head. so that it lights up calmly. Soon the problem was solved. The new composition included Berthollet salt, white phosphorus and glue. Matches with such a coating could easily ignite on any hard surface, on glass, on the sole of a shoe, on a piece of wood.
The inventor of the first phosphorus matches was a nineteen-year-old Frenchman, Charles Soria. In 1831, a young experimenter added white phosphorus to a mixture of burthollet salt and sulfur to weaken its explosive properties. This idea turned out to be successful, since the matches lubricated with the resulting composition easily ignited when rubbed. The ignition temperature of such matches is relatively low - 30 degrees. The scientist wanted to patent his invention, but for this he had to pay a lot of money, which he did not have. A year later, matches were again created by the German chemist J. Kammerer.
These matches were easily flammable, so they started fires, and besides, white phosphorus is very poisonous substance. Match factory workers suffered from serious illnesses caused by phosphorus fumes.
The first successful recipe for an incendiary mass for making phosphorus matches was apparently invented by the Austrian Irini in 1833. Irini offered it to entrepreneur Remer, who opened a match factory. But it was inconvenient to carry matches in bulk, and then a matchbox with rough paper glued to it was born. Now there was no longer any need to strike a phosphorus match against anything. The only problem was that sometimes the matches in the box caught fire due to friction.
Due to the danger of self-ignition of phosphorus matches, the search began for a more convenient and safe flammable substance. Discovered in 1669 by the German alchemist Brand, white phosphorus was easier to set on fire than sulfur, but its disadvantage was that it was a strong poison and, when burned, gave off a very unpleasant and harmful odor. Match factory workers, having inhaled white phosphorus fumes, became disabled in just a few months. In addition, by dissolving it in water, they obtained a strong poison that could easily kill a person.
In 1847, Schröter discovered red phosphorus, which was no longer poisonous. Thus, the replacement of poisonous white phosphorus in matches with red gradually began. The first combustible mixture based on it was created by the German chemist Betcher. He made a match head using glue from a mixture of sulfur and bertholet salt, and impregnated the match itself with paraffin. The match burned superbly, but its only drawback was that it did not ignite as before due to friction against a rough surface. Then Boettcher lubricated this surface with a composition containing red phosphorus. When the match head was rubbed, the particles of red phosphorus contained in it ignited, ignited the head and the match lit up with an even yellow flame. These matches did not produce any smoke or the unpleasant smell of phosphorus matches.
Boettcher's invention did not initially attract the attention of industrialists. Its matches were first produced in 1851 by the Swedes, the Lundström brothers. In 1855, Johan Edward Lundström patented his matches in Sweden. That's why " safety matches” and began to be called “Swedish”.
The Swede applied red phosphorus to the surface of sandpaper on the outside of a small box and added the same phosphorus to the composition of the match head. Thus, they no longer caused harm to health and were easily ignited on a pre-prepared surface. In the same year, safety matches were presented at the International Exhibition in Paris and received gold medal. From that moment the match began triumphal procession all over the world. Their main feature was that they did not ignite when rubbed against any hard surface. A Swedish match was lit only if it was rubbed against lateral surface boxes covered with a special mass.
Soon after this, Swedish matches began to spread around the world and soon the production and sale of hazardous phosphorus matches was banned in many countries. After a few decades, the production of phosphorus matches ceased completely.
In America, the history of producing your own matchbox began in 1889. Joshua Pusey from Philadelphia invented his own matchbox and called it Flexibles. To this day, no information has reached us about the number of matches that were placed in this box. There are two versions - there were 20 or 50. He made the first American matchbox from cardboard using scissors. On a small wood stove, he cooked up a mixture for the match heads and coated the surface of the box with another bright mixture to light them. Beginning in 1892, Pusey spent the next 36 months defending the priority of his discovery in the courts. As often happens with great inventions, the idea was already in the air and at the same time other people were also working on the invention of the matchbox. Pusey's patent was unsuccessfully challenged by the Diamond Match Company, which invented a similar matchbox. An inventor rather than a fighter, in 1896 he agreed to the Diamond Match Company's offer to sell his patent for $4,000 along with a job offer for the company. There was a reason to sue, because already in 1895 the production volume of matches exceeded 150,000 matchboxes per day.
But perhaps the USA became the only country. where in the 40s a free box of matches came with a pack of cigarettes. They were an integral part of every cigarette purchase. The price of a matchbox has not increased in America in fifty years. So the rise and fall of the matchbox in America tracked the number of packs of cigarettes sold.
Matches came to Russia in the 30s of the 19th century and were sold for a hundred rubles in silver. Later, the first matchboxes appeared, first wooden, and then tin. Moreover, even then labels were attached to them, which led to the emergence of a whole branch of collecting - phylumenia. The label carried not only information, but also decorated and complemented the matches.
By the time the law was passed in 1848 allowing their production only in Moscow and St. Petersburg, the number of factories producing them reached 30. next year Only one match factory was operating. In 1859, the monopoly law was repealed and in 1913 there were 251 match factories operating in Russia.
Modern wooden matches are made in two ways: the veneer method (for square-section matches) and the stamping method (for round-section matches). Small aspen or pine logs are either chipped or stamped with a match machine. The matches sequentially pass through five baths, in which a general impregnation with a fire-fighting solution is carried out, a ground layer of paraffin is applied to one end of the match to ignite the wood from the match head, a layer forming the head is applied on top of it, a second layer is applied to the tip of the head, the head is also sprayed with a strengthening solution , protecting it from atmospheric influences. A modern match machine (18 meters long and 7.5 meters high) produces up to 10 million matches in an eight-hour shift.
How does a modern match work? The mass of a match head consists of 60% berthollet salt, as well as flammable substances - sulfur or metal sulfides. In order for the head to ignite slowly and evenly, without an explosion, so-called fillers are added to the mass - glass powder, iron (III) oxide, etc. The binding material is glue.
What does the skin coating consist of? The main component is red phosphorus. Manganese (IV) oxide, crushed glass and glue are added to it.
What processes occur when a match is lit? When the head rubs against the skin at the point of contact, red phosphorus ignites due to the oxygen of Berthollet salt. Figuratively speaking, fire is initially born in the skin. He lights the match head. Sulfur or sulfide flares up in it, again due to the oxygen of Berthollet salt. And then the tree catches fire.
The word "match" comes from the shape plural the words “knitting needle” (a pointed wooden stick). The word originally meant wooden shoe nails, and this meaning of "match" still exists in a number of dialects. The matches used to start fire were initially called “incendiary (or samogar) matches.”
In 1922, all factories in the USSR were nationalized, but their number after the devastation became an order of magnitude smaller. To the beginning of the Great Patriotic War In the USSR, about 55 boxes of matches were produced per person. At the beginning of the war, most match factories were located in the territory occupied by the Germans and a match crisis began in the country. Huge demands for matches fell on the eight remaining match factories. In the USSR, lighters began to be produced en masse. After the war, the production of matches quickly picked up again.
Signal - which give a bright and far visible colored flame when burning.
Thermal - when these matches burn, they release more heat, and their combustion temperature is much higher than a regular match (300 degrees Celsius).
Photographic - giving an instant bright flash when photographing.
Household supplies in large packaging.
Storm or hunting matches - these matches are not afraid of dampness, they can burn in the wind and in the rain.
In Russia, 99% of all matches produced are aspen matchsticks. Grating matches various types are the main type of matches throughout the world. Sterileless (sesquisulfide) matches were invented in 1898 by French chemists Saven and Caen and are produced mainly in English speaking countries, mainly for army needs. The basis of the rather complex composition of the head is non-toxic phosphorus sesquisulfide and Berthollet salt.
Today we are talking about ordinary matches. It would seem so simple, but people have been moving towards their current form for a very long time. Before the advent of matches, people were forced to find all sorts of ways to make fire. The main thing has long been the friction of wood against each other, with long work fire appeared. It was also possible to ignite dry grass or paper sunbeam through a kind of lens or glass, knock out sparks with silicon or other similar stones. Then it was important to keep the fire going and keep it going. Pieces of coal were often used for this.
The world's first matches - makanka matches
And only in late XVIII centuries everything has changed. Claude Berthollet, French chemist, as a result of experiments, obtained a substance that was later named Berthollet salt in his honor. As a result, in 1805 in Europe, people saw the so-called “makanka” matches. These were thin splinters with heads that were smeared with Berthollet salt. They were lit after dipping in a solution of concentrated sulfuric acid.
Matches with Berthollet salt produced at the factory
But the first real matches that did not require dipping appeared thanks to the English chemist and pharmacist John Walker. In 1827, he established that if a mixture of antimony sulfide, berthollet salt and gum arabic is applied to the tip of a wooden stick, and then the stick is dried in air, then when the resulting match is rubbed on sandpaper, it easily ignites. That is, there was no longer any need to carry a bottle of concentrated sulfuric acid with you (just imagine). D. Walker created a small factory to produce his matches. He packed them in tin cases of 100 pieces each. These matches also had a significant drawback: they smelled very bad. The improvement of matches began.
In 1830, 19-year-old French chemist Charles Soria invented phosphorus matches. Their flammable part contained berthollet salt, phosphorus and glue. These matches were very convenient: for them to ignite, all they needed was friction on almost any hard surface, even the sole of a shoe. Soria's matches had no smell, but even here, not everything was smooth. The fact is that these matches were harmful to health, because white phosphorus is poisonous.
Matches take on a modern look
Later, in 1855, another chemist, Johan Lundstrom from Sweden, decided to use red phosphorus. He applied it to the surface of the sandpaper, but placed it on a small box, and then introduced red phosphorus from the composition and the head of the match. It is safe for humans and the problem has been solved.
The appearance of the matchbox
And in 1889, Joshua Pusey invented the matchbox we are all familiar with. But his invention was a little unusual for us: the incendiary surface was located inside the box. Therefore, the American company Diamond Match Company managed to patent the box, which placed such a surface on the outside, which was undoubtedly much more convenient.
As for us, phosphorus matches were first brought to Russia from Europe in 1836, the price for them was a silver ruble per hundred, which was then relatively expensive. And the first Russian match factory was created in St. Petersburg in 1837.
Ever since Prometheus gave people fire, humanity has been faced with the task of extracting the gift received exactly when it is needed. In ancient times, this problem was solved by patiently rubbing dry pieces of wood against each other, and later - with a flint flint. Then chips coated with sulfur appeared, but not yet as a means of making fire, but only as kindling - fire was needed to ignite them. The first mention of such chips dates back to the 10th century (China). However, primitive matches ignited from the slightest spark, and this was so convenient for lighting lamps that Chinese poet Tao Gu called them “luminous servants” in his book.
The history of matches as a means of making fire began with the discovery of phosphorus in 1669 by the alchemist Brandt. In 1680, Irish physicist Robert Boyle (the same one after whom the Boyle-Mariotte law is named) coated a strip of paper with phosphorus and, striking it with a wooden match with a sulfur head, got fire... but did not attach any importance to it. As a result, the invention of matches was delayed by more than a century - until 1805, when the French chemist Jean Chancel proposed his version of a match with a head made of a mixture of sulfur, potassium chloride and sugar. The kit included a bottle of sulfuric acid into which you had to dip matches to light them.
Until recently, a box of matches was an absolutely necessary item in every home without exception.
In 1826, British pharmacist John Walker invented the first friction-lit matches. He made the match head from a mixture of sulfur, potassium chlorate, sugar and antimony sulfide, and ignited it by striking sandpaper. True, Walker's matches burned unsteadily, scattering the burning mixture, which often led to fires, and therefore their sale was banned in France and Germany. And in 1830, the French chemist Charles Sauria replaced antimony sulfide with white phosphorus.
Such matches burned perfectly, they were lit with one movement of the head on any rough surface, but... the smell of white phosphorus burning and splashing around was terrible. In addition, white phosphorus turned out to be very toxic - “phosphorus necrosis” quickly became an occupational disease of match factory workers. One package of matches at that time contained lethal dose white phosphorus, and suicides by swallowing match heads became common.
A replacement for toxic and flammable white phosphorus has not been easy to find. This was done by the Swedish chemist Gustav Erik Pash, who in 1844 understood one simple thing: if a match lights up due to mechanical contact of sulfur and phosphorus, it is not at all necessary to place phosphorus in the match head - it is enough to apply it to the rough surface that is being struck! This decision, together with the just-in-time discovery of red phosphorus (which, unlike white, does not ignite in air and is much less toxic), formed the basis for the first truly safe matches. And in 1845, two other Swedes - brothers Johan and Carl Lundström - founded a company that made safety matches a mass product, and the name “Swedish matches” became a household name.
Matches are a relatively recent invention of mankind; they replaced flint and steel about two centuries ago, when looms were already working, trains and steamships were running. But it was not until 1844 that the creation of safety matches was announced.
Discovery of phosphorus
In 1669, the alchemist Henning Brand, trying to create philosopher's stone, obtained by evaporating a mixture of sand and urine a substance that glows in the dark, later called phosphorus. The next step in the history of the invention of the match was taken by the English physicist and chemist Robert Boyle (co-author of the Boyle-Mariotte law) and his assistant Gottfried Hauckweitz: they coated paper with phosphorus and ran a wood chip coated with sulfur over it.
Incendiary machines
Between matches and flint, there were several inventions for producing fire, in particular, Döbereiner's incendiary apparatus, created in 1823 and based on the property of detonating gas to ignite in the presence of small platinum filings.
After the invention of berthollet salt (potassium chlorate) by the French chemist Claude Berthollet, his compatriot Chancel created the so-called “French incendiary machine”: potassium chlorate, along with sulfur, resin, sugar and gum arabic (acacia resin, a viscous adhesive) was applied to a wooden stick, and upon contact with concentrated sulfuric acid, ignition occurred, sometimes with an explosive nature.
The chemist Wagemann from Tübingen used Chancel's invention in 1806, but added pieces of asbestos to sulfuric acid to slow down the combustion process. The factory he created in Berlin was the first large-scale production of incendiary devices. In 1813, the first match factory in Austria-Hungary, Mahliard and Wik, was registered in Vienna for the production of so-called chemical matches. Charles Darwin used similar chemical matches when he bit into an ampoule of acid with the risk of getting burned.
First matches
In 1832, “dry matches” were invented in Vienna. Chemist Leonard Trevani coated the head of a wooden straw with a mixture of Berthollet salt with sulfur and glue, these matches were lit by friction against a rough surface; however, sometimes the head ignited explosively.
The inventor of the first phosphorus matches was the young Frenchman Charles Soria. In 1831, a nineteen-year-old experimenter added white phosphorus to a mixture of berthollet salt and sulfur to weaken its explosive properties. The ignition temperature of such matches turned out to be low - 30°C. Soria tried to get a patent, but he did not have the money to register it, so a year later phosphorus matches were created again by the German chemist J. Kammerer.
The first phosphorus matches were brought to Russia in 1836, they were expensive - a silver ruble per hundred. The first domestic match factory was built in St. Petersburg in 1837, and in 1842 in the St. Petersburg province alone there were 9 match factories, producing 10 million matches daily. The price of matches dropped sharply to 3-5 kopecks in copper per hundred pieces.
TO mid-19th century, the production of matches in Russia began to take on the character of a handicraft industry, since it was discovered that matches in significant amount can also be made at home. However, the easy flammability of phosphorus led to fires. During transportation, matches often caught fire due to friction. Fires blazed along the path of the match trains: maddened horses with burning carts brought a lot of trouble.
In 1848, Nicholas I issued a decree to produce matches only in capital cities and pack them in tin cans. Due to the toxicity of white phosphorus, work in match factories threatened workers with phosphorus necrosis, which caused, in particular, inflammation and bleeding of the gums.
Safety matches
Industrial production of the first safety matches was started in Sweden in 1855 by Johan Lundström and became possible thanks to the discovery in 1844 of non-toxic amorphous phosphorus by the Austrian chemist Anton von Schrotter (1802-1875). The head of the safety matches did not contain all the substances necessary for ignition: amorphous (red) phosphorus was deposited on the wall matchbox. Therefore, the match could not light accidentally. The composition of the head included potassium chlorate mixed with glue, gum arabic, crushed glass and manganese dioxide. Such matches no longer caused harm to health, were easily lit on a pre-prepared surface and practically did not self-ignite. Also in 1855, Lundström's matches were awarded a medal at the World Exhibition in Paris.
Modern wooden matches are made in two ways: the veneer method (for square-section matches) and the stamping method (for round-section matches). Small aspen or pine logs are either chipped or stamped with a match machine. The matches sequentially pass through five baths, in which a general impregnation with a fire-fighting solution is carried out, a ground layer of paraffin is applied to one end of the match to ignite the wood from the match head, a layer forming the head is applied on top of it, a second layer is applied to the tip of the head, the head is also sprayed with a strengthening solution , protecting it from atmospheric influences. A modern match machine (18 meters long and 7.5 meters high) produces up to 10 million matches in an eight-hour shift.
Samogar knitting needle
"Match" comes from the plural form of the word "spoke" (a pointed wooden stick). The word originally meant wooden shoe nails, and this meaning of "match" still exists in a number of dialects. The matches used to start fire were initially called “incendiary (or samogar) matches.”
In Russia, 99% of all matches produced are aspen matchsticks. Rubbed matches of various types are the main type of matches throughout the world. Stemless (sesquisulfide) matches were invented in 1898 by French chemists Saven and Caen and are produced mainly in English-speaking countries, mainly for military needs. The basis of the rather complex composition of the head is non-toxic phosphorus sesquisulfide and Berthollet salt.
Special types of matches
Storm (hunting) - burning in the wind, in dampness and in the rain, they will help to quickly light a fire in any weather, do not go out after total immersion into the water, some types of storm matches burn for several minutes and are not afraid of moisture and wind.
Thermal - developing during combustion more than high temperature and the heads giving more heat during combustion.
Signal - giving a colored flame when burning.
Photographic - giving an instant bright flash used in photography.
Fireplace matches - matches with a double-layer head, lit on any hard surface, were patented by F. Farnham in 1888, but they industrial production began only in 1905. The head of such matches consisted of potassium chlorate, glue, rosin, pure gypsum, white and colored pigments and small quantity phosphorus. The layer at the tip of the head, which was applied with a second dipping, contained phosphorus, glue, flint, gypsum, zinc oxide and coloring matter. The matches were lit silently, and the possibility of the burning head flying off was completely excluded.
Matches for cigars and pipes - with an elongated stick and an enlarged sulfur head.
Cardboard matchbooks, a patent issued to James Pussey in 1892, were acquired in 1894 by Diamond Match. Match books are distributed free of charge in hotels, restaurants, and tobacco stores.
Device
The mass of a match head consists of 60% berthollet salt, as well as flammable substances - sulfur or metal sulfides. To ensure that the head ignites slowly and evenly, without an explosion, so-called fillers are added to the mass - glass powder or iron oxide. The binding material is glue. The main component of the grater coating is red phosphorus. Manganese oxide, crushed glass and glue are added to it. When the head rubs against the skin at the point of their contact, red phosphorus ignites due to the oxygen of the Berthollet salt, that is, the fire initially arises in the skin and ignites the head of the match. Sulfur or sulfide flares up in it, again due to the oxygen of Berthollet salt. And then the tree catches fire.
Manufacturing
Matches are manufactured in accordance with GOST 1820-2001. To avoid smoldering, the match straw is impregnated with a 1.5% solution of orthophosphoric acid and then paraffinized (by dipping in molten paraffin).
Composition of the match head: Berthollet salt - 46.5%, chromium - 1.5%, sulfur - 4.2%, red lead - 15.3%, zinc white - 3.8%, ground glass - 17.2%, glue bone - 11.5%.
Composition of the “grater”: red phosphorus - 30.8%, antimony trisulfide - 41.8%, red lead - 12.8%, chalk - 2.6%, zinc white - 1.5%, ground glass - 3.8% , bone glue - 6.7%.
Matches have been one of the... essential elements human life, and they don’t play today last role in our everyday life. Usually, when we strike a match on a box, we don’t even think about what chemical reactions are occurring at that second and how much ingenuity and effort people have put into having such a convenient means of making fire.
Ordinary matches are undoubtedly one of the most amazing inventions of the human mind. To be convinced of this, it is enough to remember how much effort it took to start a fire in the old days.
True, our ancestors abandoned the tedious method of extracting fire by friction back in ancient times. In the Middle Ages, a more convenient device for this purpose appeared - a flint, but even with it, lighting a fire required a certain skill and effort. When steel struck flint, a spark was struck, which fell on tinder impregnated with saltpeter. The tinder began to smolder. By attaching a piece of paper, shavings or any other kindling to it, the fire was fanned. Fanning the spark was the most unpleasant part of this activity. But was it possible to do without it? Someone came up with the idea of dipping a dry splinter into molten sulfur. As a result, a sulfur head formed at one tip of the splinter. When the head was pressed against the smoldering tinder, it flared up. It set the whole sparkle on fire. This is how the first matches appeared.
It must be said that throughout their entire previous history, people tried to get fire with the help of mechanical influences- friction or impact. With this approach, the sulfur match could only play an auxiliary role, since it was impossible to directly produce fire with its help, because it did not ignite either from impact or from friction. But at the end of the 18th century famous chemist Berthollet proved that flames can be the result chemical reaction. In particular, if you drop sulfuric acid onto potassium hypochlorite (bertholite salt), a flame will appear. This discovery made it possible to approach the problem of making fire from a completely different angle. IN different countries Many years of research began to create matches with the end smeared with one or another chemical, capable of igniting under certain conditions.
In 1812, Chapselle invented the first self-lighting matches, which were still very imperfect, but with their help it was possible to produce a flame much faster than with a flint. Chapselle's matches were wooden sticks with a head made of a mixture of sulfur, berthollet salt and cinnabar (the latter served to color the incendiary mass a beautiful red color). In sunny weather, such a match was lit using a biconvex lens, and in other cases - by contact with a drop of concentrated sulfuric acid. These matches were very expensive and, moreover, dangerous, since sulfuric acid splashed when the head ignited and could cause burns. It is clear that they are not widely used. Matches with heads that ignite with light friction should have become more practical. However, sulfur was not suitable for this purpose.
They were looking for another flammable substance and then they paid attention to white phosphorus, discovered in 1669 by the German alchemist Brand. Brand obtained phosphorus while trying to create the philosopher's stone by evaporating a mixture of sand and urine. Phosphorus is much more flammable than sulfur, but not everything worked out right away with it. At first, the matches were difficult to light, since the phosphorus burned out too quickly and did not have time to ignite the torch. Then they began to apply it over the head of an old sulfur match, assuming that sulfur would ignite faster from phosphorus than wood. But these matches also lit poorly. Things started to improve only after they began to mix phosphorus with substances that, when heated, could release the oxygen necessary for ignition.
The next version of chemical matches, lit by contact of a head made of a mixture of sugar and potassium perchlorate with sulfuric acid, appeared in Vienna. In 1813, the first match factory in Austria-Hungary, Mahliard & Wik, was registered here for the production of chemical matches. A version of this match was used by Charles Darwin, who bit through the glass of a flask containing acid and risked getting burned.
By the time the production of sulfur matches began (1826) by the English chemist and pharmacist John Walker, chemical matches were already quite widespread in Europe. The heads in John Walker's matches consisted of a mixture of antimony sulfide, berthollet salt and gum arabic (gum - a viscous liquid secreted by acacia). When such a match was rubbed against sandpaper (grater) or another fairly rough surface, its head easily ignited. Walker's matches were a yard long. They were packed in tin cases of 100 pieces. The main disadvantage of the Walker and Soria matches was the instability of the ignition of the match handle - the burning time of the head was very short. In addition, these matches had a terrible smell and sometimes lit with an explosion. Perhaps that's why big money Walker did not make any money from his invention.
Now it is difficult to say who was the first to come up with a successful recipe for an incendiary mass for phosphorus matches. According to one version, it was developed in 1830 by 19-year-old French chemist Charles Soria. His matches consisted of a mixture of Berthollet salt, white phosphorus and glue. These matches were very flammable, since they caught fire even from mutual friction in the box and when rubbing against any hard surface, for example, the sole of a boot. At that time I even went English joke, in which a whole match says to another, half-burnt one: “See how your bad habit of scratching the back of your head ends!”
According to another version, it was the Austrian Irini. In 1833, he proposed the following method for making matches to the entrepreneur Roemer: “You need to take some hot glue, preferably gum arabic, throw a piece of phosphorus into it and shake the bottle with glue vigorously. In hot glue, when shaken vigorously, the phosphorus will break into fine particles. They adhere so closely to the glue that a thick, whitish liquid is formed. Next, you need to add finely ground lead peroxide powder to this mixture. All this is stirred until a uniform brown mass is obtained. First you need to prepare sulfur, that is, splinters whose ends are covered with sulfur. The sulfur needs to be covered with a layer of phosphorus mass on top. To do this, sulfur is dipped into the prepared mixture. Now all that remains is to dry them. Thus, matches are obtained. They ignite very easily. You just have to hit them against the wall.”
This description made it possible for Roemer to open a match factory. He, however, understood that carrying matches in his pocket and striking them against the wall was inconvenient and came up with the idea of packing them in boxes, on one side of which they glued rough paper (they prepared it simply - dipped it in glue and poured sand or crushed glass onto it). When struck against such paper (or any rough surface), the match ignited. Having established a trial production of matches to begin with, Roemer then expanded production forty times - so great was the demand for his product, and he earned huge money from the production of matches. Other manufacturers followed his example, and soon phosphorus matches became a popular and cheap commodity in all countries.
Gradually, several various compositions incendiary mass. Already from Irini’s description it is clear that the head of the phosphorus match included several components, each of which performed its own functions. First of all, there was phosphorus, which played the role of an igniter. Substances that release oxygen were mixed into it. In addition to the rather dangerous bertholet salt, manganese peroxide or red lead could be used in this role, and in more expensive matches, lead peroxide, which was generally the most suitable material.
Less flammable substances were placed under a layer of phosphorus, transferring the flame from the igniter to a wooden splinter. It could be sulfur, stearin or paraffin. To ensure that the reaction did not proceed too quickly and the wood had time to heat up to the combustion temperature, neutral substances were added, for example, pumice or powdered glass. Finally, glue was mixed into the mass in order to connect all the other components. When the head rubbed against a rough surface, heat arose at the point of contact, sufficient to ignite nearby phosphorus particles, which ignited others. In this case, the mass became so hot that the body containing oxygen decomposed. The released oxygen contributed to the ignition of the flammable substance that was under the head (sulfur, paraffin, etc.). From him the fire was transferred to the tree.
The first phosphorus matches were brought to Russia in 1836, they were expensive - a silver ruble per hundred.
The big disadvantage of phosphorus matches was the toxicity of phosphorus. In match factories, workers quickly (sometimes within several months) were poisoned by phosphorus fumes and became unable to work. The harmfulness of this production exceeded even mirror and hat production. In addition, a solution of an incendiary mass in water produced a powerful poison, which was used by suicides (and often murderers).
In 1847, Schröter discovered non-toxic amorphous red phosphorus. Since that time, there was a desire to replace dangerous white phosphorus with it. The famous German chemist Bötcher was the first to solve this problem. He prepared a mixture of sulfur and bertholet salt, mixing them with glue, and applied it to the splinters coated with paraffin. But, alas, it turned out to be impossible to light these matches on the rough surface. Then Boettcher came up with the idea of lubricating the piece of paper with a special composition containing a certain amount of red phosphorus. When a match was rubbed against such a surface, the particles of red phosphorus ignited due to the particles of the berthollet salt of the head touching them and ignited the latter. The new matches burned with an even yellow flame. They did not produce either smoke or that unpleasant odor that accompanied phosphorus matches. However, Boettcher's invention did not initially interest the manufacturers. And only in 1851, “safety matches” according to Bechter’s recipe began to be produced by the Lundström brothers from Sweden. Therefore, phosphorus-free matches have long been called “Swedish”. In 1855, these matches were awarded a medal at the World Exhibition in Paris. Once “safety” matches became widespread, many countries banned the production and sale of matches made from poisonous white phosphorus.
Limited production of white phosphorus matches continued only in England, Canada and the USA, mainly for army purposes, and also (until 1925) in some Asian countries. In 1906, the international Berne Convention was adopted, prohibiting the use of white phosphorus in the production of matches. By 1910, the production of phosphorus matches in Europe and America had completely ceased.
IN late XIX century, the match business turned into a Swedish " national species sport". In 1876, 38 match factories were built in this country, and in total 121 factories were operating. However, by the beginning of the 20th century, almost all of them either went bankrupt or merged into large concerns.
Currently, matches manufactured in most European countries, do not contain sulfur and chlorine compounds - paraffins and chlorine-free oxidizing agents are used instead.
