The first friction match
" The friction match " was invented in 1826 by pharmacist John
Walker ( 1781-1859 ) from Stockton-on-Tees , England.
Like so many other inventions, this came also to the world by
accident, when he mixed potassium chlorate and antimony sulfide
.
Walker named his invention after the English artillery officer
Sir William Congreve (1772-1828) , not to be confused with the
French chemist of the same name.
Sir William Congreve was the inventor of the life-saving rocket
and unfortunately also the terrible rockets that were used by
the British bombardment of Copenhagen in 1807.
In H. E.
Gosch & Co's centenary book of 1905 states that the first
friction match was made by Frenchman Congreve and was sold in
Paris as early as 1825.
Of correspondence between Gosch 's director Folmer Preisler and
director Zettersten from Svenska Tändsticksaktiebolaget appears
that it is wrong when the author of the Gosch centenary book,
manager at Rosenborg Castle, Bering Lisberg states this.
In a commentary Bering Lisberg (which again is wrong) remarks
that Congreve invented the matches and he finally remarked to
Folmer Preisler: "I wish a certain man had taken him before he
made his rockets, so it could even go with matches "
.
By joint efforts uncover the Swedish director Zettersten and
librarian Victor Madsen (as Preisler set to unravel the miss
transferee) the true story of the invention of the first ironing
connector.
According to Victor Madsen was used one in France in 1823
invented tinder box, called " Briquet á hydrogéne " or " briquet
Fumade ", where phosphoric and sulfuric played the main role,
using wooden sticks, which were set down in phosphorus and then
dipped in the tinder box can and it was these and not
the " Congreve matches " that were sold in Paris in 1825.
A transcript of his sales book describes that he the 7th of 7
April 1827 sold Box No. 30 containing 100 " friction lights " at
the price of 1 / - .
The box
was sold to a Mr. John Hixon .
Walker never took a patent for his invention , as he considered
it to be of any significance.
He held , however the igniter composition as a secret , but
later it was found by Faraday that it contained sulfurantimon ,
potassium chlorate , gum and starch.
These sticks, which was prepared with phosphorous , could ignite
when striking at sanded or powdered glass and paper.
Walker produced only friction lights in 160 boxes during the 3
years he produced them.
Many imitated John Walker friction lights , including Samuel
Jones, who owned a store in London , which he aptly called "
lighthouse " .
In 1830 he sold the friction lights under the name Lucifers ,
which is Latin for the word light-carrier .
Samuel Jones was the first who exploited the sale of sticks
commercially and his Lucifers differed in no way from Walker's
friction lights .
These sticks , however, had a number of problems - the flame was
unstable and smell from the ignited Lucifers was very
unpleasant.
But despite these problems , the new Lucifers caused a market
increase in the number of smokers .
That same year - 1830 - the Frenchman Charles Sauria
developed Lucifer - too , since he replaced the antimonium with
white phosphorus and the phosphorus matches, was , despite the
fact that they were kept in airtight containers, quickly
popular.
Lucifers lurch also had the problem that some of them exploded
when ignited and sometimes they also throwed sparks at a
considerable distance .
Thus, the boxes written the following warning:
" If possible , avoid inhale the gas that escapes combustion of
the black composition. Persons whose lungs are fragile , should
in no way use Lucifers ."
