From a simple small stick, a light is instantly born. But the fact of the matter is that the match is not at all a simple stick, but a stick with a secret. And her secret is in her little brown head. He struck a brown head on the box - a flame broke out.
Try rubbing your palm against your palm. Do you feel how warm your palms are? That's the match. She, too, becomes warm from friction, even hot.
But for a tree to flare up, this heat is not enough. But a combustible head is enough. It lights up even from a slight heating. Therefore, the match does not need to be rubbed against the box for a long time, just strike it, and it just flared up. And then a wooden stick lights up from the head.
When matches appeared
Matches were invented about 200 years ago. In 1833 the first match factory was built. Until that time, people made fire in a different way.
First lighter
In ancient times, many people carried in their pocket a piece of iron - flint, a hard stone - flint and a wick - tinder. Chirk-chirk with flint and flint. Once again, again, again and again ... Sparks rained down. Finally, a lucky spark ignites the tinder and it begins to smolder. Why not a lighter? Only instead of a single item, as it is now, the ancient lighter consisted of three items. The lighter also has a pebble, a piece of steel - a wheel, there is also tinder - a wick soaked in gasoline.
A match is also a lighter
And the match is also a lighter. Small, thin, very handy lighter. She, too, flares up from friction. The rough barrel of the box is its steel. And the combustible head is both flint and tinder.
Making fire is a very difficult task. People all the time came up with different devices for making fire. But no matter what trick people come up with, trying to make a fire, friction has always been an indispensable condition for getting fire.
At first, matches were harmful and dangerous:
- ignited only from caustic acid;
- the heads of others had first to be crushed with special tweezers;
- the third matches did look like tiny bombs. They did not catch fire, but exploded with a bang. These are phosphorus matches. When ignited, poisonous sulfur dioxide was formed;
- at one time huge and complex glass instruments were used as matches. The devices were very expensive and inconvenient to use, besides, all these matches smoked heavily ...
More recently, about 100 years ago, "Swedish" matches were invented, which we still use today. These are the safest and cheapest matches ever invented by man. Here is the history of the creation of matches.
Varieties of matches
Travelers, geologists, climbers take signal matches with them on a hike. Each one burns with a small torch. It is bright and burns with a multi-colored torch: red, blue, green, yellow. Visible from afar.
Sailors have huge wind matches in stock. Their strong flame does not go out even in the violent sea wind.
During the Great Patriotic War our soldiers had huge ignition matches. They set fire to bottles with a combustible mixture.
That's how much use a match has! She will light a gas stove, and make a fire in the field, and give a signal, and destroy the enemy’s tank. A match in good hands will do many good deeds. But if suddenly she falls into bad hands, then you will not end up with misfortunes. In this regard, it is necessary to explain to children how dangerous games with matches are.
The biggest match in the world
On August 21, 2004, the longest match in the world was made and lit in Estonia. It is 20,000 times larger than our regular match. Its length is over 6 meters. Picked up a match cargo lift.
And there was a time when simple matches had not yet been invented.To keep warm by the fire or cook meat, you need a fire. But where to get it? What about a thunderstorm? Lightning sets wood on fire, that's fire for you. Take a smoldering firebrand, bring it home to the cave and build a fire there.People kept this "heavenly fire" as the most valuable treasure, never let it go out. And then they learned to make fire without a thunderstorm.They will take a firmer dry plank, a stronger dry stick, drier grass. They insert the stick into the hollow of the plank - and begin to rotate it with all their might in their palms. Seven sweats will be shed until the grass begins to smolder. Further it is easier: they will blow - it will burst into flames.
Primitive man made fire by friction. With the help of a belt, he rotated a stick placed on a piece of dry wood. In order for a tree to ignite, it must be very hot. That is, to get fire, you need to rub one stick against another for a very long time and strongly. And how easy and simple it has become to make a fire in our day thanks to the invention of the match!
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Classmates
, as stated in the modern encyclopedia, these are thin elongated pieces of wood, cardboard or wax-impregnated thread, equipped with a head of a chemical that ignites from friction.
Etymology and history of the word
The word "match" is derived from the old Russian word "matches" - the plural uncountable form of the word "spoke" (a pointed wooden stick, a splinter). Initially, this word referred to wooden nails that were used in the manufacture of shoes (for attaching the sole to the head). In this sense, the word is still used in a number of regions of Russia. Initially, to designate matches in the modern sense, the phrase “incendiary (or samogar) matches” was used, and only with the ubiquity of matches did the first word begin to be omitted, and then completely disappeared from everyday life.
History of the match
The history of inventions and discoveries in chemistry at the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries, which led to the invention of various types of matches, is quite confusing. International patent law did not yet exist at that time, European countries often challenged each other's primacy in many projects, and various inventions and discoveries appeared almost simultaneously in different countries. Therefore, it makes sense to talk only about the industrial (manufactory) production of matches.
The first matches appeared at the end of the 18th century. These were chemical matches that were ignited by the contact of a head of a mixture of sugar and potassium perchlorate with sulfuric acid. In 1813, the first match factory in Austria-Hungary for the production of chemical matches by Mahliard and Wik was registered in Vienna. 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 (Charles Darwin used a variant of such a match, biting through the glass of a cone with acid and risking burns).
The heads in John Walker's matches consisted of a mixture of antimony sulfide, bertolet salt and gum arabic (gum, a viscous liquid secreted by acacia). When such a match is rubbed against sandpaper (grater) or other rather rough surface, its head easily ignites.
They were a full yard long. They were packed in tin cases of 100 pieces, but Walker did not earn a lot of money on his invention. In addition, these matches had a terrible smell. Later, smaller matches began to go on sale.
In 1830, 19-year-old French chemist Charles Soria invented phosphorus matches, which consisted of a mixture of barthollet salt, white phosphorus and glue. These matches were very flammable, because they caught fire even from mutual friction in the box and when rubbing against any hard surface, for example, the sole of a boot (how can one not remember the hero of Charlie Chaplin, who lit a match on his own pants). At that time, there was an English joke in which a whole match says to another, half-burnt: “You see how your bad habit of scratching the back of your head ends!” Soria's matches were odorless, but were harmful to health, as they were very poisonous, which was used by many suicides to settle accounts with life.
The main drawback 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. The way out was found in the invention of phosphorus-sulfur matches, the head of which was made in two stages - first, the stalk was dipped in a mixture of sulfur, wax or stearin, a small amount of berthollet salt and glue, and then in a mixture of white phosphorus, berthollet salt and glue. A flash of phosphorus ignited a slower-burning mixture of sulfur and wax, which ignited the stalk of a match.
These matches remained dangerous not only in production, but also in use - extinguished matchsticks continued to smolder, leading to frequent fires. This problem was solved by impregnating the match handle with ammonium phosphate (NH4H2PO4). Such matches began to be called impregnated (English impregnated - impregnated) or, later, safe. For stable burning of the cutting, they began to impregnate it with wax or stearin (later - paraffin).
In 1855, a Swedish chemist applied sandpaper to the surface and replaced it with white phosphorus in the head of a match. Such matches were no longer harmful to health, they easily ignited on a pre-prepared surface and practically did not ignite spontaneously. Johan Lundström patents the first "Swedish match", which has survived almost to this day. In 1855, Lundström's matches were awarded a medal at the World Exhibition in Paris. Later, phosphorus was completely removed from the composition of the match heads and remained only in the composition of the spread (grater).
With the development of the production of "Swedish" matches, the use of white phosphorus was banned in almost all countries. Before the invention of sesquisulfide matches, limited matches with white phosphorus were kept only in England, Canada and the USA, mainly for military 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 manufacture of matches. By 1910, the production of phosphoric matches in Europe and America was completely discontinued.
Sesquisulfide matches were invented in 1898 by French chemists Saven and Caen. They are produced mainly in English-speaking countries, mainly for military needs. The basis of a rather complex composition of the head are non-poisonous phosphorus sequisulphide (P4S3) and berthollet salt.
AT late XIX century, the match business became Sweden's "national sport". In 1876, 38 factories for the production of matches were built, and a total of 121 factories were operating. However, by the beginning of the 20th century, almost all of them either went bankrupt or merged into large concerns.
At present, matches made in most European countries, do not contain sulfur and chlorine compounds - paraffins and chlorine-free oxidizing agents are used instead.
First matches
For the first time, white phosphorus was successfully used to light a match by friction in 1830 by the French chemist C. Soria. He made no attempt to organize industrial production matches, but two years later phosphorus matches were already produced in Austria and Germany.
Safety matches
The first safety matches, ignited by rubbing against a specially prepared surface, were created in 1845 in Sweden, where J. Lundström began their industrial production in 1855. This became possible thanks to the discovery by A. Schrotter (Austria) in 1844 of non-toxic amorphous phosphorus. The head of safety matches did not contain all the substances necessary for ignition: amorphous (red) phosphorus was deposited on the wall of the matchbox. Therefore, the match could not be ignited by accident. The composition of the head included potassium chlorate mixed with glue, gum arabic, crushed glass and manganese dioxide. Almost all matches made in Europe and Japan are of this type.
kitchen matches
Matches with a two-layer head, ignited on any hard surface, were patented by F. Farnham in 1888, but their industrial production began only in 1905. The head of such matches consisted of potassium chlorate, glue, rosin, pure gypsum, white and colored pigments and a small amount phosphorus. The layer at the tip of the same head, which was applied by the second dipping, contained phosphorus, glue, flint, gypsum, zinc oxide and a dye. The matches ignited silently, and the possibility of flying off the burning head was completely excluded.
Matchbooks
Cardboard matchbooks are an American invention. A patent for them, issued by J. Pussy in 1892, was acquired in 1894 by the Diamond Match Company. At first, such matches did not receive public recognition. But after one of the beer companies purchased 10 million matchbooks to advertise their products, the production of cardboard matches became big business. Nowadays, matchbooks are distributed free of charge to win the favor of customers in hotels, restaurants, tobacco shops. There are twenty matches in a standard booklet, but books of other sizes are also available. They are usually sold in packs of 50. Books of special design can be supplied in packages of various sizes, most suitable for the customer. These matches are of the safe type;
Impregnation of matches
Prior to 1870, no fire impregnation methods were known to prevent flameless burning of the remaining coal on an extinguished match. In 1870, the Englishman Howes received a patent for the impregnation of matches with a square cross section. It listed a number of materials (including alum, sodium tungstate and silicate, ammonium borate and zinc sulfate) suitable for impregnating square matches by immersing them in a chemical bath.
The impregnation of round matches on a continuous match machine was considered impossible. Due to the fact that the legislation of some states since 1910 required mandatory fire impregnation, W. Fairburn, an employee of the Diamond Match company, in 1915 proposed, as an additional operation on a match machine, immersing matches about 2/3 of the length into a weak solution (approx. 0 .5%) ammonium phosphate.
Phosphorus sesquisulfide
White phosphorus, which was used to make matches, caused bone disease in match factory workers, tooth loss and necrosis of jaw areas. In 1906 an international agreement was signed in Bern (Switzerland) banning the manufacture, import and sale of matches containing white phosphorus. In connection with this ban, harmless matches with amorphous (red) phosphorus were developed in Europe. Phosphorus sesquisulfide was first obtained in 1864 by the Frenchman J. Lemoine, mixing four parts of phosphorus with three parts of sulfur without access to air. In such a mixture, the toxic properties of white phosphorus did not appear. In 1898, the French chemists A.Seren and E.Caen proposed a method for using phosphorus sesquisulfide in match production, which was soon adopted in some European countries.
In 1900, the Diamond Match Company acquired the right to use a patent for matches with phosphorus sesquisulfide. But the patent formula was for matches with a simple head. The quality of sesquisulfide matches with a two-layer head turned out to be unsatisfactory.
In December 1910, W. Fairburn developed a new formula for harmless matches with phosphorus sesquisulfide. The company published the patent formula and allowed all competitors to use it for free. A law was passed to tax every box of matches with white phosphorus equal to two cents, after which matches with white phosphorus were forced out of the market.
Mechanization of the production of matches
In the beginning, the production of matches was completely manual, but soon attempts began to increase productivity through mechanization. Already in 1888, an automatic continuous-action machine was created, which, with some modifications, still forms the basis of match production.
Production of wooden matches
Modern wooden matches are made in two ways. With the veneer method (for matches of a square cross section), selected aspen logs are skinned and then cut into short blocks, which are peeled or planed into ribbons corresponding in width to the length of the matches, one match thick. The ribbons are fed into a match machine, which cuts them into individual matches. The latter are mechanically inserted into the perforations of the plates of the dipping machine. In another method (for round matches), small pine blocks are fed into the head of the machine, where punching dies arranged in a row cut match blanks and push them into perforations of metal plates on an endless chain.
With both methods of production, matches pass successively through five baths, in which a general impregnation with a fire-fighting solution is carried out, a primer 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, and in Finally, the head is sprayed with a hardening solution that protects it from atmospheric influences. After passing on an endless chain through huge drums for drying for 60 minutes, the finished matches are pushed out of the plates and enter the packing machine, which distributes them among the matchboxes. Then the wrapping machine wraps three, six or ten boxes in paper, and the packing machine fills the shipping container with them. A modern match machine (18 m long and 7.5 m high) produces up to 10 million matches in an 8-hour shift.
Production of cardboard matches
Cardboard matches are made on similar machines, but in two separate operations. Pre-treated cardboard from large rolls is fed into a machine that cuts "combs" of 60-100 matches from it and inserts them into the sockets of an endless chain. The chain carries them through the paraffin bath and head forming bath. The finished combs are sent to another machine, which cuts them into double "pages" of 10 matches and fastens them with a pre-printed lid fitted with an ignition strip. Ready matchbooks are sent to the packing machine. Massage chair Since ancient times, the East has known that the main problems with well-being are precisely due to improper stress on the muscles and spine. To restore tone and health, it was […]
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A match is a stick (stalk, straw) made of combustible material, equipped with an incendiary head at the end, which serves to produce an open fire.
Matches are a relatively recent invention of mankind, they replaced the steel about two centuries ago, when they were already working looms, there were trains and boats. But it wasn't until 1844 that safety matches were announced.
Before a match flared up in the hands of a human being, many events took place, 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, it is believed that matches were originally invented in China in 577 during the Qi Dynasty that ruled northern China (550-577). The courtiers were under military siege and left without fire invented them from sulfur.
But let's find out the history of this everyday little thing in more detail ...
The description of these matches is given by Tao Gu in his book “Proofs of the Extraordinary and Supernatural” (c. 950):
“If something unexpected happens overnight, it takes some time. A shrewd man simplified small sticks of pine soaked in sulfur. They were ready to use. It remains only to rub them on an uneven surface. It turned out a flame as big as a wheat ear. This miracle is called "a slave 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 Chansel, although already in 1680 the Irish physicist Robert Boyle (who discovered Boyle's law) coated a small sheet of phosphorus and took a wooden stick with a sulfuric head already known to us. He rubbed it against the paper and as a result, a fire broke out.
The word "match" comes from the old Russian word spoke - a pointed wooden stick, or a splinter. Initially, wooden nails were called knitting needles, which fastened the sole to the shoe. At first, matches in Russia were called "incendiary, or samogar matches."
Match sticks can be either wooden (soft wood species are used - linden, aspen, poplar, American white pine ...), and cardboard and wax (cotton cord impregnated with paraffin).
Collecting match labels, boxes, matches themselves and other related items is called phylumenia. And their collectors are called phylumenists.
According to the ignition method, there are grater matches, which ignite when rubbing against the surface of a matchbox, and non-grater ones, which ignite 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 the steel. But even with him, kindling a fire required time, a certain skill and effort. Striking steel on flint, they cut a spark that fell on tinder soaked in saltpeter. It began to smolder and already from it, with the help of dry kindling, they fanned the fire
The next invention was the impregnation of a dry splinter with molten sulfur. When the sulfur head was pressed against the smoldering tinder, it flared up. And from it they already set fire to the hearth. This is how the prototype of the modern match appeared.
In 1669, white phosphorus, which is easily ignited by friction, was discovered, which began to be used in the production of the first match heads.
In 1680, the Irish physicist Robert Boyle (1627 - 1691, who discovered Boyle's law), covered a small sheet with such phosphorus and took a wooden stick with a sulfuric head already known to us. He rubbed it against the paper and as a result, a fire broke out. But unfortunately, Robert Boyle did not draw any useful conclusion from this.
Invented in 1805, Chapsel's wooden matches had a head made from a mixture of sulfur, bartolet salt, and cinnabar red, which was used to color the head. Such a match was lit either with a magnifying glass from the Sun (remember how drawings were burned in childhood, or carbon paper was set on fire), or by dripping concentrated sulfuric acid on it. His matches were dangerous to use and very expensive.
A little later, in 1827, the English chemist and pharmacist John Walker (1781-1859) discovered that if you cover the end of a wooden stick with certain chemicals, then striking it on a dry surface, the head lights up and sets fire to the stick. The chemicals he used were the following: antimony sulfide, berthollet salt, gum and starch. Walker did not patent his "Congreves," as he called the world's first friction-ignited matches he invented.
An important role in the birth of the match was played by the discovery of white phosphorus, made by a retired soldier from Hamburg, 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 an amazing property to glow, and Brand named it "phosphorus", which means "light-bearing" in Greek.
As for Walker, as is often the case, the druggist invented matches by accident. In 1826, he mixed chemicals with 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 "Lucifer" and began to sell them in tons, despite the fact that some problems were associated with the "Lucifer" - they smelled bad and, when ignited, scattered clouds of sparks around.
He soon put them on the market. The first sale of matches took place on April 7, 1827 in the city of Hikso. Walker made some money with his invention. His matches and Congreves, however, often exploded and were unpredictably dangerous to handle. He died in 1859 at the age of 78 and was buried in the graveyard of Norton Parish Church in 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 burned.
There was another problem - in the first matches, the head consisted of one phosphorus, which ignited perfectly, but burned out too quickly and the wooden stick did not always have time to catch fire. I had to return to the old recipe - a sulfuric head, and they began to apply phosphorus to it in order to more easily set fire to the sulfur, which in turn set fire to the wood. Soon they came up with another improvement in the match head - they began to mix chemicals that release oxygen when heated to phosphorus.
Dry matches appeared in Vienna in 1832. 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 such a match is passed over sandpaper, the head ignites, but sometimes it exploded, and this led to serious burns.
The ways of further improvement of matches were extremely clear: it is necessary to make such a composition of the mixture for a match head. so that it lights up calmly. The problem was soon resolved. The new composition included Berthollet salt, white phosphorus and glue. Matches with such a coating easily ignited 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 the nineteen-year-old Frenchman Charles Soria. In 1831, a young experimenter added white phosphorus to a mixture of Berthollet salt and sulfur to weaken its explosive properties. This idea turned out to be successful, since the splinters lubricated with the resulting composition easily ignited during friction. The ignition temperature of such matches is relatively small - 30 degrees. The scientist wanted to patent his invention, but he had to pay a lot of money for this, which he did not have. A year later, matches were re-created by the German chemist J. Kammerer.
These matches were easily flammable, so they caused fires, and besides, white phosphorus is a very toxic 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 suggested it to the entrepreneur Remer, who opened a match factory. But it was inconvenient to carry matches in bulk, and then Matchbox with rough paper pasted on it. Now it was no longer necessary to strike a phosphorus match on anything. The only problem was that sometimes matches caught fire from friction in the box.
In connection with the danger of self-ignition of phosphorus matches, the search began for a more convenient and safe flammable substance. White phosphorus, discovered in 1669 by the German alchemist Brand, was easier to ignite than sulfur, but its disadvantage was that it was a strong poison and, when burned, gave a very unpleasant and harmful odor. Match factory workers, having breathed in the vapors of white phosphorus, literally turned into disabled people in just a few months. In addition, by dissolving it in water, they obtained the strongest poison, which could easily kill a person.
In 1847, Schroeter discovered red phosphorus, which was no longer poisonous. So gradually began the replacement of poisonous white phosphorus in matches with red. The first combustible mixture based on it was created by the German chemist Betcher. He made the head of a match on the basis of glue from a mixture of sulfur and berthollet salt, and soaked the match itself with paraffin. The match burned splendidly, but its only drawback was that, as before, it did not ignite from rubbing against a rough surface. Then Betcher smeared this surface with a composition containing red phosphorus. When the match head was rubbed, the particles of red phosphorus contained in it ignited, set fire to the head and the match lit up with an even yellow flame. These matches produced neither smoke nor the unpleasant smell of phosphorus matches.
Betcher's invention did not initially attract the attention of industrialists. For the first time, his matches began to be produced in 1851 by the Swedes, the Lundstrem brothers. In 1855, Johan Edvard Lundström patented his matches in Sweden. Therefore, "safe matches" and began to be called "Swedish".
The Swede applied red phosphorus to the surface of the sandpaper on the outside of a small box and added the same phosphorus to the composition of the match head. Thus, they no longer harmed health and easily ignited on a pre-prepared surface. Safety matches in the same year were presented at the International Exhibition in Paris and received a gold medal. From that moment on, the match began its triumphal procession around the world. Their main feature was that they did not ignite when rubbed against any hard surface. The Swedish match was lit only if it was rubbed against side surface boxes covered with a special mass.
Shortly thereafter, Swedish matches began to spread around the world and soon the production and sale of hazardous phosphorus matches was banned in many countries. A few decades later, the production of phosphorus matches completely ceased.
In America, the history of producing your own matchbox began in 1889. Joshua Pusey of Philadelphia invented his matchbox and called it Flexibles. No information about the number of matches placed in this box has survived to this day. There are two versions - there were 20 or 50. He made the first American matchbox out of cardboard using scissors. On a small wood-burning stove, he boiled the mixture for the heads of the matches and covered the surface of the box with another bright mixture to set them on fire. Beginning in 1892, Puxi spent the next 36 months defending the priority of his discovery in the courts. As often happened 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. Puxi's patent was unsuccessfully challenged by the Diamond Match Company, which invented a similar matchbox. Being an inventor, not a wrestler, in 1896 he accepted an offer from the Diamond Match Company to sell his patent to them for $4,000, along with a job offer from the company. It was because of what, because already in 1895 the volume of production of matches exceeded 150,000 matchboxes per day.
But only, perhaps, the United States became the only country. where in the 40s a free box of matches was attached to a pack of cigarettes. They have been an integral part of every cigarette purchase. The price of a matchbox hasn't 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 at a silver ruble for a hundred .. Later, the first matchboxes appeared, first wooden and then tin. Moreover, even then labels were glued on 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.
The number of factories that produced them reached 30 by the release in 1848 of the law allowing their production only in Moscow and St. Petersburg. The following year, only one match factory worked. In 1859, the monopoly law was abolished and in 1913 there were 251 match factories in Russia.
Modern wooden matches are made in two ways: veneer method (for square section matches) and stamping method (for round section matches). Small aspen or pine chocks are either chipped or stamped with a match machine. Matches sequentially pass through five baths, in which a general impregnation with a fire-fighting solution is carried out, a primer 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 still sprayed with hardening solution protecting it from the weather. A modern match machine (18 meters long and 7.5 meters high) produces up to 10 million matches in an eight-hour shift.
How is a modern match arranged? The mass of a match head is 60% berthollet salt, as well as combustible 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 oxide (III), etc. The binding material is glue.
And what does the skin paste consist of? The main component is red phosphorus. Manganese (IV) oxide, crushed glass and glue are added to it.
What processes take place when a match is lit? When the head is rubbed against the skin at the point of contact, red phosphorus ignites due to the oxygen of Berthollet's salt. Figuratively speaking, fire is originally born in the skin. He lights the match head. Sulfur or sulfide flares up in it, again due to the oxygen of the Bertolet salt. And then the tree lights up.
Amo word "match" comes from the plural form of the word "knitting needle" (a pointed wooden stick). Initially, this word meant wooden shoe nails, in this sense "matches" still exists in a number of dialects. The matches used to start the fire were at first 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. By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, about 55 boxes of matches per person were produced in the USSR. At the beginning of the war, most of the match factories ended up on the territory occupied by the Germans and a match crisis began in the country. Huge needs for matches fell on the eight remaining match factories. In the USSR, lighters began to be mass-produced. After the war, the production of matches quickly resumed.
Signal - which give a bright and far visible colored flame when burning.
Thermal - when burning these matches, more heat is released, and the temperature of their combustion is much higher than a regular match (300 degrees Celsius).
Photographic - giving an instant bright flash when photographing.
Household in a large package.
Storm, or hunting - 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 grater matches. Grating matches of various types are the main type of matches all over the world. Matchless (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 a rather complex composition of the head are non-poisonous phosphorus sesquisulfide and Berthollet salt.
Match
Ignition of the match head
burning match
One of the early matchboxes
Match- a stick (stalk, straw) made of combustible material, equipped with an incendiary head at the end, which serves to produce an open fire.
Etymology and history of the word
The word "match" is derived from the old Russian word "matches" - the plural uncountable form of the word "spoke" ( pointed wooden stick). This word originally meant wooden nails, which were used in the manufacture of shoes (for attaching the sole to the head). In this sense, the word is still used in a number of regions of Russia. Initially, to designate matches in the modern sense, the phrase “incendiary (or samogar) matches” was used, and only with the ubiquity of matches did the first word begin to be omitted, and then completely disappeared from everyday life.
The main types of modern matches
According to the material of the matchstick, matches can be divided into wooden (made from soft woods - aspen, linden, poplar, American white pine, etc.), cardboard and wax (paraffin - made from cotton cord impregnated with paraffin).
According to the method of ignition - on grater (ignited by rubbing against a special surface - a grater) and non-grated (ignited by rubbing against any surface).
In Russia, the most common are aspen grater matches, which make up more than 99% of the matches produced.
Grating matches of various types are the main mass type of matches all over the world.
Matchless (sesquisulfide) matches are produced mainly in England and the USA in limited quantities.
combustion temperature
In a match, the flame temperature is 750-850 °C, while 300 °C is the ignition temperature of wood, and the combustion temperature of wood is approximately 800-1000 °C.
History of the match
The history of inventions and discoveries in chemistry at the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries, which led to the invention of various types of matches, is rather confusing. International patent law did not yet exist, European countries often challenged each other's primacy in many projects, and various inventions and discoveries appeared almost simultaneously in different countries. Therefore, it makes sense to talk only about the industrial (manufactory) production of matches.
The first matches were made in 1805 by the French chemist Chancel. These were wooden matches that were ignited by the contact of a head of a mixture of sulfur, bartholium salt and cinnabar with concentrated sulfuric acid. In 1813, the first match factory in Austria-Hungary for the production of chemical matches by Mahliard and Wik was registered in Vienna. By the time the production of sulfur matches began (1826), the English chemist and pharmacist John Walker (eng. John Walker) chemical matches were already quite widespread in Europe (Charles Darwin used a variant of such a match, biting through the glass of a cone with acid and risking burns).
The heads in John Walker's matches consisted of a mixture of antimony sulfide, bertolet salt, and gum arabic (gum, a viscous liquid secreted by the acacia tree). When such a match is rubbed against sandpaper (grater) or other rather rough surface, its head easily ignites.
Walker's matches were a full yard long. They were packed in tin cases of 100 pieces, but Walker did not earn a lot of money on his invention. In addition, these matches had a terrible smell. Later, smaller matches began to go on sale.
Currently, matches made in most European countries do not contain sulfur and chlorine compounds - paraffins and chlorine-free oxidizing agents are used instead.
Match production in Russia
The production of phosphorus matches began in Russia around the 1800s, but neither the packaging nor the labels of the first factories have been preserved, and accurate documentary data on their location have not yet been found. The first surge in the development of the production of matches falls on the -ies. By the year, more than 30 match manufactories were already operating in Russia. In November of the year, a law was passed allowing the production of matches only in Moscow and St. Petersburg and restricting retail sale matches. As a result, only one match factory remained in Russia. In the city, it was allowed "everywhere, both in the Empire and in the Kingdom of Poland, to manufacture phosphoric matches." By the year 251 registered production of matches was operating in Russia.
In Russia, attention was paid to the extreme danger of white phosphorus quite early - already in the city there were restrictions on the circulation of white phosphorus, and in the city an excise tax was set twice as high as on "Swedish" matches. By the beginning of the 20th century, the production of matches using white phosphorus in Russia gradually came to naught.
One of these companies even produced several matches 1 meter long.
Special matches
In addition to ordinary (household) matches, special ones are also made:
- Storm (hunting)- burning in the wind, in dampness and in the rain.
- Thermal- developing during combustion more high temperature and giving more heat during combustion of the head.
- Signal- giving a colored flame when burned.
- Photographic- giving an instant bright flash, used when photographing.
- Fireplace- very long matches to light fireplaces.
- Gas- shorter than fireplace ones to light gas burners.
- Decorative (gift, collection) - limited edition boxes with various patterns (like postage stamps), the matches themselves often had a colored head (pink, green). Box-sized label sets were also produced separately.
- Household- had, as they say now, "economical packaging."
match museums
Application
In addition to the main purpose, matches are sometimes used:
- Instead of counting sticks for teaching children. In this case, the match heads are cut off or washed off with water so as not to provoke a fire.
- As a conditional monetary unit for various card and other games.
- For the manufacture of match houses
- A matchbox of the Soviet / Russian sample according to GOST has a length of exactly 5 cm, which makes it possible to measure the size of objects with its help.
- For various logic games, as well as games for accuracy.
- Matches sharpened with a knife or properly broken off can be used as toothpicks.
- A match, on which cotton wool is wound, replaces a cotton swab.
- A match bent in half is used to hold a cigarette with marijuana when it spits so much that it is impossible to hold it with your fingers.
- AT Soviet times matchboxes were often used as a container for stool delivery in polyclinics.
- Matches are often used as magic props.
- Matchboxes are used to store small items. For example, radio amateurs store small radio components in them. Sometimes several boxes are glued together to form a storage (“cash desk”) with several compartments in the form of a miniature chest of drawers.
- Collecting matches, matchboxes, labels, etc. - phylumenia.
- Like a bookmark when reading a book.
- in pyrotechnics.
- The box can be used as a container to hold small animals (such as insects)
- For extending handle bars.
- An interesting fact: a match is often used as an object for size comparison when photographing small objects, such as modern radio components. This assumes that everyone has seen the match, and uses the fact that it is always easy to find to take a photo.
- Sometimes matches are used instead of weights (a set of metal plates weighing up to 1 gram) for weighing small items, substances (1 match = 0.1 grams)
In culture and art
- “Diamond match”, tale by P. P. Bazhov
- "For Matches" (, Russian translation) - a humorous story by Mayu Lassila
- "Burn, burn brightly ...", production drama. The film is set in a match factory.
- "Swedish match" (), a story by A. P. Chekhov, as well as () his film adaptation of the same name
- "How Savushkin went for matches"
- "The Little Match Girl", a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen and a cartoon based on it
- The Girl from the Match Factory, dir. Aki Kaurismaki
- A wizard was walking through the city, a novel. The Secret of the Iron Door, a film adaptation of this novel. About a boy who found a box of magic matches.
It would seem that the subject is simpler than ordinary matches, you can’t imagine. Everyone is familiar with them - from small to large! Children know that for them it is “not a toy”, while adults use them as widely as possible. But it is unlikely that when lighting a gas burner or making a fire, we think about when matches were invented?
“Now I know 1000 ways not to invent the light bulb…”
In ancient times, fire was obtained by striking a spark by striking a special flint and flint on flint. The spark was supposed to set fire to the tinder - a wick soaked in a combustible substance. The method is extremely unreliable, because it was possible to knock for hours, and the cherished little light did not appear.
After reading about this, the reader is in a hurry to move on, but if you stop for a second and think about what came first - matches or a lighter, the answer will not be obvious at all! At the lighter modern view, essentially the same principle - there is flint, a piece of steel (a wheel that replaces a steel flint) and tinder - a gasoline "thread". And this means that the lighter was invented before matches!
However, back to the topic. The first matches appeared in a completely different "guise". First there were "chemical flint" - matches that were ignited by contact with sulfuric acid, then wooden sticks with a glass head, which had to be crushed with tongs.
Close to the "ideal" was the invention of John Walker. Then matches appeared in the world, which could be lit by "striking" the head. However, his "light sticks" were unsafe: after combustion, they left a plume of extremely unpleasant sulfur dioxide, scattered when ignited with a cloud of sparks and were 90 cm long! So Walker never became the one who invented matches.
Then there was the French chemist Charles Soria, whose matches were less "poisonous", but ignited from touching any surface. This was their main disadvantage - they caught fire even during transportation!
Finally a success!
And yet, in what year were matches invented? Only in 1853. True, for starters, red phosphorus was discovered in Austria in 1847. It is not harmful to humans. Safe matches were invented by the chemist J. Lundstrem, who guessed to put this very phosphorus on the “incendiary surface” and on the match head. But the matchbox was invented much later - only in 1889. Thus, the answer to the question in which country the matches were invented is the following wording: Sweden (safety matches are sometimes called "Swedish"), but only after the "French" red phosphorus.
When did matches appear in Russia?
There is no exact data on when matches appeared in Russia. It is believed that the first manufactory where matches were made appeared between 1833 and 1837. The production of "fire sticks" underwent ups and downs, but by 1913 the "leaps" had stopped, and match production began to develop rapidly. Since 1862, restrictions were imposed on the production of Soria products, and by the beginning of the 20th century there were already only safety matches.
Types of matches
What are matches? Today is very different!
- Ordinary (now, of course, only safe ones)
- Storm, or hunting (can warm in strong winds and in the rain);
- Signal (with colored flame);
- Fireplace (very long);
- Thermal (generate a lot of heat);
- Gas (longer than conventional, but shorter than fireplace);
- Decorative (something like gift sets - with colored heads and commemorative drawings on the boxes).
Surprisingly, such small and familiar things are fraught with a huge history of trial and error, failures and successes.
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