A HISTORY OF MATCHES

According to a later writer, Tao Zunyi,3³ Mote, Frederick W. ‘T’ao Tsung-I and his Cho Keng Lu’, PhD diss., University of Washington, 1954. who lived in Hangzhou in the mid-fourteenth century, these sulfur splinters were already being used by ‘impoverished ladies of the court’ in the Northern Qi4⁴ The Northern Qi dynasty (550–577) occupied territories in northeastern China, approximately around present-day Beijing, although it did not exist at that time. state, conquered by the Turks, as early as the late sixth century. Presumably, noblewomen couldn't handle tasks that any maid could easily manage, such as igniting fires, and they needed various useful gadgets when forced to run their households independently.

As we don't know much more about the early versions of matches, let's fast forward a few centuries and almost 10,000 kilometers to the west, to Europe in the modern era.

The first practically ‘real’ matches were invented in 1805 by the Frenchman Jean Chancel. He saturated the head of the match with a mixture of antimony trichloride,5⁵ Potassium chlorate, when combined with certain substances, produces explosive mixtures. sulfur, gum arabic,6⁶ Resin from dried sap of various species of acacia and sugar. It then had to be dipped into an asbestos bottle containing sulfuric acid to ignite. It was expensive, dangerous, and inconvenient, but the benefits outweighed the risks, and mass production was soon launched.

Matches even reached distant, snowy Russia. In November 1824, Pushkin wrote to his brother from the Trigorskoye estate. He asked him to send sulfur matches (as well as books, playing cards, mustard, and cheese). Since we’re on the topic of literature, it was sulfur matches that the unfortunate girl from Andersen's heartbreaking fairytale was selling the night she was out in the cold.

Experiments with match head compositions and ignition methods continued throughout the nineteenth century. Inventors tried to solve three main problems: spontaneous combustion, flying sparks, and toxicity. It seems that this was achieved with fairly variable success. For example, one can recall matches invented by the Englishman John Walker (no relation to Johnny Walker whiskey!), improved by the Scot Isaac Holden, and patented by the father of Holden's pupil, Samuel Jones (yes, it’s a confusing story). They were sold under the commercial name Lucifer Matches. Incidentally, you must agree that such a name had to be well-deserved.

For instance, these matches had a tendency to practically explode in your hands, scattering numerous sparks that were a fire hazard. They also smelled like all the sulfur in hell. Interestingly, although they didn't last long on the market, just until the beginning of the twentieth century, in American slang, most matches were commonly referred to as ‘Lucifers’.

However, even compared to the dubious Lucifers, the next generation of matches, developed by the Frenchman Charles Soria in 1830 and known as ‘locofocos’7⁷The word came from loko, as in ‘locomotive’, and foco, from the Italian fuoco, meaning ‘fire’ or ‘flame’. Together, we get ‘self-igniting’. (remember this name, it'll come up soon), surpassed them. The crucial difference was that Soria's matches utilized white phosphorus, a substance so poisonous that it was often chosen for suicides. It was remarkably convenient that a single matchbox contained just enough phosphorus to settle the score with life or a neighbor. While American and Hungarian inventors later refined Soria's matches, let's skip the chemical intricacies and note simply that white phosphorus continued to be used in match production until the early twentieth century. An international convention banning its use was only adopted in 1906.

In 1844, the Swede Gustav Erik Pasch8⁸ Crass, M. F. Jr. ‘A History of the Match Industry Part 5’, Journal of Chemical Education, 1941. 18 (7), pp 318. devised a method to eliminate using white phosphorus in the production of matches. He replaced it with red phosphorus, which was harmless at least in the quantities used for matches. He suggested using a separate surface coated with the same red phosphorus-emery paper (referred to as a ‘grater’ by matchmakers) for ignition. Later, phosphorus was entirely removed from the composition of the match head, remaining only on the grater. Mass production was soon initiated by the Swedish manufacturer Johan Lundström. By 1858, his company was producing 12 million boxes, and by 1878, 121 match factories were operating in the country. Do you remember ‘Swedish matches’ being mentioned in a Chekhov9⁹ ‘The Swedish Match’ (1893) is a short story by Anton Chekhov, a parody of detective fiction, in which a matchstick became a clue in the investigation of a presumed murder. story? That's precisely what they are.

And these are the matches we commonly use today.10¹⁰ Milyukov, O. ‘Matches’, Chemistry and Life, 1967. No. 4. To conclude our discussion on chemistry, in post-Soviet countries,11¹¹ ‘Commodity Dictionary. Matches.’ From ‘Museum of Trade’, http://www.mintorgmuseum.ru/vocabulary/556/. matches are crafted from aspen wood infused with a special solution to prevent unintended friction. The match head comprises antimony trisulfide, sulfur, and potassium dichromate, which serve as the combustible components. Ground glass and zinc white are used to regulate the rate of burning. Beneath a layer of these substances, the match head is enveloped in paraffin, ensuring the flame doesn't get extinguished too swiftly. The striking surface is coated with antimony sulfide and red phosphorus, while the addition of ochre, chalk, and ground glass prevents the entire surface from igniting upon striking the match.

Remember the locofoco matches? During the latter half of the 1830s, they lent their name to a faction12¹² Encyclopædia Britannica, History & Society: Locofoco Party. within the Democratic Party in the United States. Legend has it that during a party gathering in New York, supporters of the majority faction extinguished the gas lamps in an attempt to disrupt the proceedings. In response, their adversaries used these matches to light candles, thus earning themselves the nickname ‘Locofocos’.

The Locofocos advocated for the working class, supported the principle of laissez-faire,13¹³ An ideology advocating for minimal state intervention in the economy. and staunchly opposed the monopoly rights granted to banks by the government. In 1837, also in New York, the Locofocos gathered to protest against rising flour prices, which escalated into the ‘Flour Riot’:14¹⁴ Zinn, Howard. A People's History of the United States. New York: Perennial Classics, 2003. a crowd, incited by rumors that the city was running out of bread, looted and destroyed warehouses, resulting in fifty-three arrests. Opponents of the Locofocos reinterpreted the name of this group in mockery, transforming ‘loco’ to the Spanish word meaning ‘crazy’. Thus, they became known as ‘crazy firebrands’. Detractors used this term to mock the entire Democratic Party until the 1850s, although the Locofocos themselves ceased to exist after the federal law on the Independent Treasury was passed in 1840, which ended government intervention in the banking system.

Several decades later, on the other side of the Atlantic, matches themselves became the direct cause of serious political upheavals. The bone of contention was white phosphorus. After all, if it was poisonous to the consumer, then for those involved in production, it was downright destructive. There was even a diagnosis known as ‘phossy jaw’, wherein the toxic fumes led to bone decay and teeth loss. It's no wonder that the production and sale of matches was carried out by the poorest and most vulnerable sections of society—women, children, and the disabled.

By the 1880s, the largest player in the English match market was the company Bryant & May: up to 5,000 people worked in its factories, the majority being teenage girls and women of Irish descent. Interestingly, Bryant & May, having bought a license for the production of Swedish matches, also produced them for some time. However, due to the high production cost, they returned to making harmful matches based on white phosphorus.

In 1888, social activist Annie Besant published an article about the appalling working conditions in match factories, including the dreadful harm caused by contact with white phosphorus. The management demanded that the workers issue a rebuttal (sounds familiar, doesn't it?), but they flatly refused. One woman was fired, and a strike erupted like a match, pardon the pun. Within a day, all the workers from one of the factories, about 1,400 people,15¹⁵ Raw, Louise. Striking a Light: The Bryant and May Matchwomen and their Place in Labour History. London: Continuum, 2009. joined the strike.

They turned to Annie Besant for help, who rallied progressive society. Among others, George Bernard Shaw16¹⁶ John Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) was an Irish playwright, Nobel Prize laureate in Literature, and socialist. Unfortunately, he tarnished his reputation by praising the Stalin regime. participated in fundraising for the women left without any means of support. Two weeks later, the strike ended in a complete victory for the workers—fines for minor offenses were abolished, they were given the right to bypass the foreman and bring their complaints directly to management, and, most importantly, a separate room for meals was allocated so that their food did not come into contact with phosphorus.

Meanwhile, activists continued their campaign against white phosphorus, and in 1901, Bryant & May stopped using it in their matches.

In 1889, an American named Joshua Pusey patented a ‘booklet’ with detachable matches. He soon sold the rights to a company called Diamond Match Company. In 1895, performers from the Mendelson Opera Troupe (not the composer)17¹⁷ Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809–47) was a famous Jewish-German romantic composer. bought a hundred matchbook covers from Diamond Match Company and manually applied their own advertising on them. The only surviving copy reads: ‘Cyclone of fun – powerful troupe – charming girls – attractive costumes – buy tickets in advance.’18¹⁸ Retskin, Bill. ‘Perfect Match: Endangered by Smoking Bans and Disposable Lighters, Matchbooks Offer a Miniature History of American Advertising’, 1997. https://www.cigaraficionado.com/article/perfect-match-7520. We don't know what opera they were promoting with these introductions, but the current insurance price for this rarity is $25,000.

A year later, a young salesman named Henry Trout joined Diamond Match Company. It is unknown whether he knew about the opera matches, but he convinced major manufacturers to purchase huge volumes of matchbooks with advertising on them. The first client was a brewery from Milwaukee, who bought 10 million matchbooks. The second was a certain tobacco magnate who bought 30 million, and the third was William Wrigley, the ‘Chewing Gum King’ (yes, that same Wrigley’s), who bought a billion matchbooks with advertising right away.

Trout was obviously a business genius—it wasn’t a coincidence that he ended his career as vice president of the company. He understood that selling advertising space and distributing matchbooks with advertisements through his own distribution network was much more profitable, both for him and the advertisers, than supplying them with large quantities of ready-made matches. And so, off this idea went.

Diamond Match Company basked in advertising money until the Great Depression,19¹⁹ The Great Depression was the most severe economic crisis in world history. In the US, the worst period occurred from 1929 to 1933, when the gross domestic product (GDP) plummeted by almost a quarter, industrial production levels regressed to those of the early century, and unemployment quadrupled, affecting up to 20 per cent of the workforce. when marketing budgets tightened for everyone and matches became less of a priority. At that point, the company made another great move. They started putting portraits of celebrities on the packaging—movie stars, athletes, anyone really—selling a piece of a dream along with the matches. And, of course, this also marked the start of mass phillumeny, or the hobby of collecting matchbox labels.

By the end of the Second World War, America was churning out half a trillion20²⁰ William P. Vogel Jr. Делает 1,125,000 спичек в час // Popular Science, август 1946 г., ссылка: https://books.google.rs/books?id=LiEDAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Popular+Science+August+1946&hl=ru&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjprsrHuLWEAxW3EBAIHRZlDnIQuwV6BAgEEAg#v=onepage&q=Popular%20Science%20August%201946&f=false. matches annually. Among them, about 200 billion were in matchbooks, 100 billion were wooden matches in boxes, and another 200 billion were long wooden matches that could ignite on any rough surface.

Then came the era of cheap disposable lighters, electric stoves, and gas stoves with built-in igniters. Meanwhile, efforts to combat smoking intensified. Matches lost their former household significance, but to this day, a respectable restaurant or hotel may offer you a matchbook adorned with their branding. Diamond Match Company remains active to this day, producing around 12 billion matches each year.21²¹ Helmenstine, Anne Marie. ‘History of Chemical Matches: Chemistry of Making Fire Using Matches’, ThoughtCo, 3 November 2019. https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-chemical-matches-606805.