Matches: they're not just for setting fire to things

By Mayank Sharma. Posted

History would have us believe that the ability to start a fire has a direct correlation with the growth of human civilisation. It was our ancestors’ desire to control fire that distinguished them from animals. While we gained control over fire more than a million years ago, matchsticks are a fairly recent invention. Some of the earliest examples of matches are the Chinese fire sticks from 577 AD that were used by the women of a town to ward off invaders.

Over the years intrepid alchemists have generated heat and fire with many chemical reactions. In 1680, Sir Robert Boyle produced a flame by scratching a splinter of sulphur-coated wood on a piece of paper coated with phosphorus. Jean Chancel, the assistant of famous French chemist Louis Jacques Thénard, gave us the first modern self-igniting match in 1805. The head of this match was made from a mixture of potassium chlorate, sulphur, sugar, and rubber, and the user ignited the match by dipping it into a small bottle filled with sulphuric acid. The match didn’t get much attention because of the dangerous and expensive mix of ingredients.

The first friction matches came along in 1826, when John Walker combined a paste of sulphur with gum, potassium chlorate, sugar, and antimony trisulphide, and ignited it by drawing the match between a fold of sandpaper. His matches however were considered too dangerous, and were even banned in France and Germany. Charles Sauria then reformulated the match using white phosphorus, which turned out to be dangerous in other ways.

The calls for banning white phosphorus matches led to safety matches that were devised by two Swedes. First, Gustaf Erik Pasch in 1844 proposed placing some of the match’s combustion ingredients on a separate striking surface, rather than incorporating them all into the match head, as a precaution against accidental ignition. This idea, along with the discovery of the non-toxic red phosphorus, led J. E. Lundström to introduce safety matches in 1855. Although safety matches posed less of a hazard, many people still preferred the convenience of strike-anywhere matches, and both types are still used today.

Modern matches are manufactured in several stages. In the case of wooden-stick matches, the matchsticks are first cut and soaked in a vat filled with a dilute solution of ammonium phosphate. They are then dried and inserted into holes in a long perforated belt, which dips them into several chemical tanks before they are dried and packaged in boxes.

matchstick-rockets

Matchstick Rockets

Project Maker: Waren Gonzaga

Ever since he was in middle school, Waren Gonzaga dreamt of working for NASA and building rockets. Since he couldn’t find a hobby class to pursue his interest in his city in the Philippines, he decided to enrol in Mike Warren’s Rocket Class on Instructables.com (hsmag.cc/ZbtTMu).

Waren wanted to build a solid propellent rocket but couldn’t find a shop from where he could source the materials. “Also, I am not aware of any law regarding making and launching rockets,” he adds. He remembered seeing an article from NASA on matchstick rockets some eight years earlier. Since that article lacked specifications, Waren decided to construct his rocket by experimentation.

His Instructables page has details on the science involved, along with lots of illustrated build information to help anyone replicate the project. The construction involves wrapping a piece of aluminium foil around the strikeable tip of the matchstick. Pinch the foil at the top to make sure the exhaust is directed towards the bottom to achieve lift-off. Waren experimented with several designs and shares details about the failed ones, along with the successful ones.

Matchstick Crafts

matchstick-crafts

Project Maker: Cordell von Malegowski

A few years after a classmate bought a cube made of matches for one of the projects in Cordell’s high school design class, he decided to make one of his own. “After some trial and error I was able to make it and then I made a video on how I made it. As that video became popular, I made a few more matchstick creation videos, with one of them becoming my most viewed video,” shares Cordell. All his videos detail each and every step, with clear and detailed annotations. Unlike the majority of matchbox crafts, most of Cordell’s are put together without glue and can be easily duplicated with a little bit of patience and lots of matchsticks: “The motivation behind my matchstick creations is to make something impressive out of what is a seemingly simple object. It is also to inspire others by showing what can be achieved with some time and patience.”

Like the Buddhist monks who destroy a mandala on completion, Cordell lights up his creations once they’re done: “The reason I burn them after is mostly for the entertainment value. As they are made from matches, it’s what most people would expect and want me to do.”

matchstick-gun

Matchstick Gun

Project Maker: Grant Thompson

f you’ve ever had the desire to rain flaming arrows on your enemies, follow Grant’s project to unleash your medieval warrior. He converts a regular clothes peg into a piece of desktop weaponry that can shoot matchstick arrows over 20 feet. “When I made that project, I had a small son who instantly fell in love with it, and he had me make a few more so we could run around the house having matchstick wars. It was a great way to bond, father and son”, shares Grant.

To make the gun, simply remove the spring from the clothes peg and place them back to back. Then carve out the channels for the arrows with a utility knife, and cut a small notch to hold the spring. Then, glue the pieces back together and attach the spring. Grant’s Instructable has detailed illustrations that’ll help you easily repurpose the clothes peg.

Matchstick Puzzles

matchstick-puzzle

Project Maker: Dawie van Heerden

narguably, the most popular non-incendiary use of matchsticks is to build puzzles. Matchstick puzzles became popular in the 19th century, and are perhaps the earliest examples of board games. Dawie van Heerden from Cape Town, South Africa has always been intrigued by “these little sticks with their rounded heads”.

He has been collating matchstick puzzles on his blog, that’s ranked among the Top 100 Puzzle Blogs on the web. He has been posting puzzles since 2011, and the blog currently has over 500 puzzles. Each puzzle post has a matchstick illustration, along with a textual challenge and is tagged with one of the four difficulty levels: easy, medium, hard and extreme. Thanks to the images, you can replicate the puzzles offline with real matchsticks with little trouble. Each post also has an illustrated answer, and you can browse the blog without accidentally revealing the solutions

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