Kathie Harris, age 11, of Frida, Arizona, for her question:
When were the first matches invented?
Nobody knows when the first person learned how to strike a spark to light a campfire. But it must have happened many thousands of years ago. Strange to say, the original invention was not much improved until about a couple of centuries ago. Nobody came up with anything like our modern matches until the 1E20s, what's more, these first chemical watchers were very smelly and far from dependable.
Nowadays, we strike a match in a moment with no trouble at all. But in pioneer days, our neat chemical matches had not bees invented. Then many people used a flint and steel gadget to strike a spark and it often took half an hour to light a fire. This method of striking sparks was in vogue for ages before anyone thought of something better.
Scouts., of course, know that it is possible to light a campfire by rubbing two dry sticks together.. The rubbing is friction and friction creates warmth. Eventually, the rubbing of dry sticks creates enough warmth to ignite a pile of dry leaves and start a campfire. A modern match also works by friction, but chemicals are used to do the job in a jiffy.
The first effort to graduate from the flint and steel tinder box was made in the 1780s. Friction was not used in these ancestral matches. In¬stead, a small strip of twisted paper was tipped with phosphorous. Since this hot tempered chemical ignites in the presence of oxygen, the paper twist was sealed in a glass tube. When somebody wanted a light, the tube eras broken the oxygen in the air rushed in and united with the phosphor¬ous to start a fiery flame.
It was invented in France in 1731 and called the phosphoric candle or the eternal match. Five years later, it was surpassed by an Italian inven¬tion called the pocket luminary. This time, a phosphorous oxide was used to coat the inside of a bottle. A batch of chemically treated match sticks was provided to go with it. When a person wanted a light, one of the sticks was rubbed on the inside of the bottle. It burst into flame when it came out into the air.
The next improvement was made in France in 1805. It was called the instantaneous light box. The box was a bottle stuffed with a fabric material that had been soaked in sulphuric acid. It was sold with 50 chemical match sticks and became quite popular in North America.
Obviously these earliest matches were not very safe because they used highly inflammable chemicals that tend to ignite on contact with oxygen in the air. In 1827, John Walker of England invented matches that used tamer chemicals that depended on the warmth of friction. These so called congreves were the first modern type matches.
The tip of a modern match is coated with layers of different chemicals. Each has a different kindling point, which is the special temperature at which a substance ignites. Friction from rubbing on a rough surface creates enough warmth to light the layer of chemicals at the tip. When this ignites, it gives enough heat to ignite the next layer which lights the next layer.