Danny Martin, age 9, of Quincy, I11., for his question:
WHEN WAS THE FIRST MATCH MADE?
A match is a piece of wood or cardboard with a tip made of a chemical mixture that burns easily. Matches are used to produce fire.
The first matches resembling those we use today were developed in 1827 by an English pharmacist named John Walker. Walker's invention was called a congreve.
A congreve was a strip of wood three inches long that was tipped with antimony sulfide, chlorate of potash, gum arabic and starch. To light one you would draw it through a fold of glass paper, a material somehwat like sandpaper. The match burst into flame with a series of small explosions that showered you with sparks.
Then in 1830, a French chemistry student named Charles Sauria came up with the first strike anywhere match. The tip included phosphorus. An American in Springfield, Mass., named Alonzo Phillips patented the first phosphorus matches in the United States in 1836. He made his matches by hand and sold them from door to door.
Neither Phillips nor Sauria knew that the fumes from their phosphorus matches could cause a deadly disease called necrosis of the jaw. Then a number of factory workers who were exposed to the phosphorus fumes died from the disease.
In 1900, the Diamond Match Company purchased a French patent for matches with a striking head of sesquisulfide of phosphorus, a nonpoisonous compound. But the French formula would not work in the United States because of the difference in climate.
In 1910, as a result of the spread of necrosis, the United States placed such a high tax on phosphorus matches that the match industry faced extinction. But the problem was solved in 1922 when a young naval architect named William Fairburn adapted the French formula to the climate of the United States. The threat of necrosis came to an end.
The first safety match was invented by a Swedish chemist named Gustave Pasch in 1844.
The match industry was centered in Sweden for many years. John Lundstrom, a Swedish manufacturer, started to produce safety matches in large quantities in 1852.
In the early 1900s, a Swedish promoter named Ivar Kreuger formed the Swedish Match Company, a giant international match empire that owned factories, forests and mines. The company operated match factories in more than 40 countries and manufactured most of the world's matches.
The stock market crash of 1929 weakened Kreuger's influence.
Book matches were invented in 1892 by a Philadelphia patent lawyer named Joshua Pusey. Pusey made matches in packages of 50. The striking surface was on the inside cover, dangerously near the heads of the matches. Because of this, book matches did not become popular until World War I.
About this time the Diamond Match Company purchased Pusey's patent and made book matches safe and usable.
Collecting matchbook covers is a hobby that is enjoyed today by thousands of people.