Who invented matches?

Who invented matches?

A match consists of three basic parts – a head, which initiates combustion via various materials like phosphorous, a tinder substance to pick up and burn the flame, usually a piece of wood or cardboard, and a handle, often the same as the tinder. In 1669, after phosphorous was discovered, it was soon used in match heads.

In 1680, Robert Boyle, an Irish physicist coated a small piece of paper with phosphorous and coated a small piece of wood across the paper, and created a fire. However, Robert Boyle did not make a useable match. In 1827, John Walker, English chemist and apothecary, discovered that if he coated the end of a stick with certain chemicals and let them dry, he could start a fire by striking the stick anywhere. These were the first friction matches. One Samuel Jones saw Walker’s ‘Congreves’ and decided to market them, calling his matches ‘Lucifers’. Lucifers became popular, especially among smokers, but they had a bad burning odor.

Johan Edward Lundstrom of Sweden, in 1855, patented safety matches. Lundstrom put red phosphorus on the sandpaper outside the box and the other ingredients on the match head, creating a match that could only be safely lit off the prepared, special striking, surface. In 1889, Joshua Pusey invented the matchbook, and called his matchbook matches ‘flexibilities’