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88-397: A match is a tool for starting a fire . Typically, matches are made of small wooden sticks or stiff paper . One end is coated with a material that can be ignited by friction generated by striking the match against a suitable surface. Wooden matches are packaged in matchboxes , and paper matches are partially cut into rows and stapled into matchbooks . The coated end of a match, known as

176-406: A catalyst , a substance that is not consumed, when added, in any chemical reaction during combustion, but which enables the reactants to combust more readily. Once ignited, a chain reaction must take place whereby fires can sustain their own heat by the further release of heat energy in the process of combustion and may propagate, provided there is a continuous supply of an oxidizer and fuel. If

264-403: A high energy fuel for jet and rocket engines , emits intense green flame, leading to its informal nickname of "Green Dragon". The glow of a flame is complex. Black-body radiation is emitted from soot, gas, and fuel particles, though the soot particles are too small to behave like perfect blackbodies. There is also photon emission by de-excited atoms and molecules in the gases. Much of

352-532: A New York surgeon published a pamphlet with notes on nine cases. The conditions of working-class women at the Bryant & May factories led to the London matchgirls strike of 1888 . The strike was focused on the severe health complications of working with white phosphorus , such as phossy jaw . Social activist Annie Besant published an article in her halfpenny weekly paper The Link on 23 June 1888. A strike fund

440-565: A book called the Records of the Unworldly and the Strange written by Chinese author Tao Gu in about 950 stated: If there occurs an emergency at night it may take some time to make a light to light a lamp. But an ingenious man devised the system of impregnating little sticks of pinewood with sulfur and storing them ready for use. At the slightest touch of fire, they burst into flame. One gets

528-464: A chemist in London who commercialised his process. A version of Holden's match was patented by Samuel Jones, and these were sold as lucifer matches . These early matches had a number of problems – an initial violent reaction, an unsteady flame, and unpleasant odor and fumes. Lucifers could ignite explosively, sometimes throwing sparks a considerable distance. Lucifers were manufactured in

616-461: A combustible material left after a fire is called clinker if its melting point is below the flame temperature, so that it fuses and then solidifies as it cools, and ash if its melting point is above the flame temperature. Fire is a chemical process in which a fuel and an oxidizing agent react, yielding carbon dioxide and water . This process, known as a combustion reaction , does not proceed directly and involves intermediates . Although

704-489: A controversial gap in the Late Devonian , charcoal is present ever since. The level of atmospheric oxygen is closely related to the prevalence of charcoal: clearly oxygen is the key factor in the abundance of wildfire. Fire also became more abundant when grasses radiated and became the dominant component of many ecosystems, around 6 to 7 million years ago ; this kindling provided tinder which allowed for

792-450: A fire. The most common form of active fire protection is fire sprinklers . To maximize passive fire protection of buildings, building materials and furnishings in most developed countries are tested for fire-resistance , combustibility and flammability . Upholstery , carpeting and plastics used in vehicles and vessels are also tested. Where fire prevention and fire protection have failed to prevent damage, fire insurance can mitigate

880-559: A law, but instead placed a "punitive tax" in 1913 on white phosphorus–based matches, one so high as to render their manufacture financially impractical, and Canada banned them in 1914. India and Japan banned them in 1919; China followed, banning them in 1925. In 1901 Albright and Wilson started making phosphorus sesquisulfide at their Niagara Falls , New York plant for the US market, but American manufacturers continued to use white phosphorus matches. The Niagara Falls plant made them until 1910, when

968-488: A little flame like an ear of corn. This marvelous thing was formerly called a "light-bringing slave", but afterward when it became an article of commerce its name was changed to 'fire inch-stick'. Another text, Wu Lin Chiu Shih , dated from 1270 AD, lists sulfur matches as something that was sold in the markets of Hangzhou , around the time of Marco Polo 's visit. The matches were known as fa chu or tshui erh . Before

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1056-732: A long history . Fire was the basis of all early thermal weapons . The Byzantine fleet used Greek fire to attack ships and men. The invention of gunpowder in China led to the fire lance , a flame-thrower weapon dating to around 1000 CE which was a precursor to projectile weapons driven by burning gunpowder . The earliest modern flamethrowers were used by infantry in the First World War , first used by German troops against entrenched French troops near Verdun in February 1915. They were later successfully mounted on armoured vehicles in

1144-497: A match head on the end of a paraffin -impregnated splint and the special striking surface (in addition to the safety aspect of replacing the white phosphorus with red phosphorus ). The idea for separating the chemicals had been introduced in 1859 in the form of two-headed matches known in France as Allumettes Androgynes . These were sticks with one end made of potassium chlorate and the other of red phosphorus. They had to be broken and

1232-566: A match was achieved by crushing the capsule with a pair of pliers, mixing and releasing the ingredients in order for it to become alight. In London, similar matches meant for lighting cigars were introduced in 1849 by Heurtner who had a shop called the Lighthouse in the Strand. One version that he sold was called "Euperion" (sometimes "Empyrion") which was popular for kitchen use and nicknamed as "Hugh Perry", while another meant for outdoor use

1320-401: A rectangular holder for a matchbox, which allowed the user to light a single splint, or sliver of wood with the match and use the spill to transfer the fire to several candles. Apart from just using small vase shapes, designers found a number of ingenious solutions to the problem of a design needing an upward-facing hole with some depth, and many designs were figural, with the spills going into

1408-535: A relatively long-burning, colored flame). However, when friction matches became commonplace, the term match came to refer mainly to these. A note in the text Cho Keng Lu , written in 1366, describes a sulfur match, small sticks of pinewood impregnated with sulfur, used in China by "impoverished court ladies" in AD 577 during the conquest of Northern Qi . During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms (AD 907–960),

1496-472: A sample of red phosphorus matches from Albright at The Great Exhibition, but had misplaced it and therefore they did not try the matches until just before the Paris Exhibition of 1855 when they found that the matches were still usable. In 1858 their company produced around 12 million matchboxes. The safety of true "safety matches" is derived from the separation of the reactive ingredients between

1584-631: A series of mechanisms that behave differently in micro gravity when compared to normal gravity conditions. These discoveries have potential applications in applied science and industry , especially concerning fuel efficiency . The adiabatic flame temperature of a given fuel and oxidizer pair is that at which the gases achieve stable combustion. Fire science is a branch of physical science which includes fire behavior, dynamics, and combustion . Applications of fire science include fire protection , fire investigation , and wildfire management. Every natural ecosystem on land has its own fire regime , and

1672-436: A similar point in time. The use of fire became progressively more sophisticated, as it was used to create charcoal and to control wildlife from tens of thousands of years ago. Fire has also been used for centuries as a method of torture and execution, as evidenced by death by burning as well as torture devices such as the iron boot , which could be filled with water, oil , or even lead and then heated over an open fire to

1760-534: A slow match burns at a rate of around 30 cm (1 ft) per hour and a quick match at 4 to 60 centimetres (2 to 24 in) per minute. The modern equivalent of a match (in the sense of a burnable cord) is the simple fuse such as a visco fuse , still used in pyrotechnics to obtain a controlled time delay before ignition. The original meaning of the word still persists in some pyrotechnics terms, such as black match (a black-powder -impregnated fuse) and Bengal match (a firework akin to sparklers producing

1848-479: A slow-burning substance like wood. While Walker was preparing a lighting mixture on one occasion, a match that had been dipped in it took fire by an accidental friction upon the hearth. He at once appreciated the practical value of the discovery, and started making friction matches. They consisted of wooden splints or sticks of cardboard coated with sulfur and tipped with a mixture of sulfide of antimony , chlorate of potash , and gum . The treatment with sulfur helped

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1936-594: A strikeable tip similar to a normal match, but the combustible compound – including an oxidiser – continues down the length of the stick, coating half or more of the entire matchstick. The match also has a waterproof coating (which often makes the match more difficult to light), and often storm matches are longer than standard matches. As a result of the combustible coating, storm matches burn strongly even in strong winds, and can even spontaneously re-ignite after being briefly immersed in water. The hobby of collecting match-related items, such as matchcovers and matchbox labels,

2024-466: A textbook on chemistry, and founded several match factories. Those involved in the manufacture of the new phosphorus matches were afflicted with phossy jaw and other bone disorders, and there was enough white phosphorus in one pack to kill a person. Deaths and suicides from eating the heads of matches became frequent. The earliest report of phosphorus necrosis was made in 1845 by Lorinser in Vienna, and

2112-537: Is feeding the fire. Fire prevention is intended to reduce sources of ignition. Fire prevention also includes education to teach people how to avoid causing fires. Buildings, especially schools and tall buildings, often conduct fire drills to inform and prepare citizens on how to react to a building fire. Purposely starting destructive fires constitutes arson and is a crime in most jurisdictions. Model building codes require passive fire protection and active fire protection systems to minimize damage resulting from

2200-417: Is its use to clear land for agriculture. Slash-and-burn agriculture is still common across much of tropical Africa, Asia and South America. For small farmers, controlled fires are a convenient way to clear overgrown areas and release nutrients from standing vegetation back into the soil. However, this useful strategy is also problematic. Growing population, fragmentation of forests and warming climate are making

2288-409: Is known as phillumeny . [REDACTED] Media related to Matches at Wikimedia Commons [REDACTED] The dictionary definition of Match at Wiktionary Fire Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel ) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion , releasing heat , light , and various reaction products . At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called

2376-404: Is one of the four classical elements and has been used by humans in rituals , in agriculture for clearing land, for cooking, generating heat and light, for signaling, propulsion purposes, smelting , forging , incineration of waste, cremation , and as a weapon or mode of destruction. The word "fire" originated from Old English Fyr  'Fire, a fire', which can be traced back to

2464-416: Is typically composed of 25% powdered glass or other abrasive material, 50% red phosphorus , 5% neutralizer, 4% carbon black , and 16% binder; and the match head is typically composed of 45–55% potassium chlorate , with a little sulfur and starch, a neutralizer (ZnO or CaCO 3 ), 20–40% of siliceous filler, diatomite , and glue. Safety matches ignite due to the extreme reactivity of phosphorus with

2552-417: Is used by nearly every human being on Earth in a controlled setting every day. Users of internal combustion vehicles employ fire every time they drive. Thermal power stations provide electricity for a large percentage of humanity by igniting fuels such as coal , oil or natural gas , then using the resultant heat to boil water into steam , which then drives turbines . The use of fire in warfare has

2640-602: The Germanic root * fūr- , which itself comes from the Proto-Indo-European * perjos from the root * paewr- ' fire ' . The current spelling of "fire" has been in use since as early as 1200, but it was not until around 1600 that it completely replaced the Middle English term fier (which is still preserved in the word "fiery"). The fossil record of fire first appears with

2728-485: The United States Congress forbade the shipment of white phosphorus matches in interstate commerce. The dangers of white phosphorus in the manufacture of matches led to the development of the "hygienic" or "safety match". The major innovation in its development was the use of red phosphorus , not on the head of the match but instead on a specially designed striking surface. Arthur Albright developed

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2816-408: The flash point for the fuel /oxidizer mix, and is able to sustain a rate of rapid oxidation that produces a chain reaction . This is commonly called the fire tetrahedron . Fire cannot exist without all of these elements in place and in the right proportions. For example, a flammable liquid will start burning only if the fuel and oxygen are in the right proportions. Some fuel-oxygen mixes may require

2904-448: The "dangerous goods" classification U.N. 1331, Matches, strike-anywhere . Safety matches are classified as dangerous goods , "U.N. 1944, Matches, safety". They are not universally forbidden on aircraft ; however, they must be declared as dangerous goods and individual airlines or countries may impose tighter restrictions. Storm matches, also known as lifeboat matches or flare matches, are often included in survival kits . They have

2992-426: The 1680s with phosphorus and sulfur, but their efforts did not produce practical and inexpensive methods for generating fires. A number of different ways were employed in order to light smoking tobacco: One was the use of a spill – a thin object something like a thin candle, a rolled paper or a straw, which would be lit from a nearby, already existing flame and then used to light the cigar or pipe – most often kept near

3080-575: The Second World War, notably on Coventry , Tokyo , Rotterdam , London , Hamburg and Dresden ; in the latter two cases firestorms were deliberately caused in which a ring of fire surrounding each city was drawn inward by an updraft caused by a central cluster of fires. The United States Army Air Force also extensively used incendiaries against Japanese targets in the latter months of the war, devastating entire cities constructed primarily of wood and paper houses. The incendiary fluid napalm

3168-504: The Second World War. Hand-thrown incendiary bombs improvised from glass bottles, later known as Molotov cocktails , were deployed during the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s. Also during that war, incendiary bombs were deployed against Guernica by Fascist Italian and Nazi German air forces that had been created specifically to support Franco's Nationalists . Incendiary bombs were dropped by Axis and Allies during

3256-547: The United States by Ezekial Byam. The term "lucifer" persisted as slang for a match into the 20th century. For example, the song " Pack Up Your Troubles " includes the line "while you’ve a lucifer to light your fag". Matches are still called "lucifers" in Dutch . Lucifers were quickly replaced after 1830 by matches made according to the process devised by Frenchman Charles Sauria , who substituted white phosphorus for

3344-579: The addition of phosphorus sesquisulfide meant that the substance was not poisonous, that it could be used in a "strike-anywhere" match, and that the match heads were not explosive. British company Albright and Wilson was the first company to produce phosphorus sesquisulfide matches commercially. The company developed a safe means of making commercial quantities of phosphorus sesquisulfide in 1899 and started selling it to match manufacturers. However, white phosphorus continued to be used, and its serious effects led many countries to ban its use. Finland prohibited

3432-476: The agony of the wearer. By the Neolithic Revolution , during the introduction of grain-based agriculture, people all over the world used fire as a tool in landscape management. These fires were typically controlled burns or "cool fires", as opposed to uncontrolled "hot fires", which damage the soil. Hot fires destroy plants and animals, and endanger communities. This is especially a problem in

3520-400: The antimony sulfide. These new phosphorus matches had to be kept in airtight metal boxes but became popular and went by the name of loco foco ("crazy fire") in the United States, from which was derived the name of a political party . The earliest American patent for the phosphorus friction match was granted in 1836 to Alonzo Dwight Phillips of Springfield, Massachusetts . From 1830 to 1890,

3608-491: The burning of vegetation releases nitrogen into the atmosphere, unlike elements such as potassium and phosphorus which remain in the ash and are quickly recycled into the soil. This loss of nitrogen caused by a fire produces a long-term reduction in the fertility of the soil, which can be recovered as atmospheric nitrogen is fixed and converted to ammonia by natural phenomena such as lightning or by leguminous plants such as clover , peas , and green beans . Fire

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3696-460: The composition of these matches remained largely unchanged, although some improvements were made. In 1843 William Ashgard replaced the sulfur with beeswax, reducing the pungency of the fumes. This was replaced by paraffin in 1862 by Charles W. Smith, resulting in what were called "parlor matches". From 1870 the end of the splint was fireproofed by impregnation with fire-retardant chemicals such as alum, sodium silicate, and other salts resulting in what

3784-477: The earth's surface more prone to ever-larger escaped fires. These harm ecosystems and human infrastructure, cause health problems, and send up spirals of carbon and soot that may encourage even more warming of the atmosphere – and thus feed back into more fires. Globally today, as much as 5 million square kilometres – an area more than half the size of the United States – burns in a given year. There are numerous modern applications of fire. In its broadest sense, fire

3872-611: The establishment of a land-based flora in the Middle Ordovician period, 470  million years ago , permitting the accumulation of oxygen in the atmosphere as never before, as the new hordes of land plants pumped it out as a waste product. When this concentration rose above 13%, it permitted the possibility of wildfire . Wildfire is first recorded in the Late Silurian fossil record, 420  million years ago , by fossils of charcoalified plants. Apart from

3960-652: The familiar red-orange glow of "fire". This light has a continuous spectrum . Complete combustion of gas has a dim blue color due to the emission of single-wavelength radiation from various electron transitions in the excited molecules formed in the flame. Usually oxygen is involved, but hydrogen burning in chlorine also produces a flame, producing hydrogen chloride (HCl). Other possible combinations producing flames, amongst many, are fluorine and hydrogen , and hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide . Hydrogen and hydrazine/ UDMH flames are similarly pale blue, while burning boron and its compounds, evaluated in mid-20th century as

4048-497: The financial impact. Spill vase A spill vase was usually kept on the mantelpiece and was filled with spills used to transfer fire from the fireplace to candles , lamps , a pipe or a cigar . Commercial matches , which first surfaced in England during the 1820s, were a relatively expensive commodity until the late 19th century, and spill was therefore a more cost effective solution. Some examples of spill vases have

4136-407: The fire. Because of this, the risk of fire in a spacecraft is small when it is coasting in inertial flight. This does not apply if oxygen is supplied to the fire by some process other than thermal convection. Fire can be extinguished by removing any one of the elements of the fire tetrahedron. Consider a natural gas flame, such as from a stove-top burner. The fire can be extinguished by any of

4224-407: The fireplace in a spill vase . Another method saw the use of a striker , a tool that looked like scissors , but with flint on one "blade" and steel on the other. These would then be rubbed together, ultimately producing sparks. If neither of these two was available, one could also use ember tongs to pick up a coal from a fire and light the tobacco directly. The first modern, self-igniting match

4312-668: The flame becomes spherical, with a tendency to become more blue and more efficient (although it may go out if not moved steadily, as the CO 2 from combustion does not disperse as readily in microgravity, and tends to smother the flame). There are several possible explanations for this difference, of which the most likely is that the temperature is sufficiently evenly distributed that soot is not formed and complete combustion occurs. Experiments by NASA reveal that diffusion flames in microgravity allow more soot to be completely oxidized after they are produced than diffusion flames on Earth, because of

4400-405: The following: In contrast, fire is intensified by increasing the overall rate of combustion. Methods to do this include balancing the input of fuel and oxidizer to stoichiometric proportions, increasing fuel and oxidizer input in this balanced mix, increasing the ambient temperature so the fire's own heat is better able to sustain combustion, or providing a catalyst, a non-reactant medium in which

4488-595: The food. The heat produced would also help people stay warm in cold weather, enabling them to live in cooler climates. Fire also kept nocturnal predators at bay. Evidence of occasional cooked food is found from 1  million years ago . Although this evidence shows that fire may have been used in a controlled fashion about 1 million years ago, other sources put the date of regular use at 400,000 years ago. Evidence becomes widespread around 50 to 100 thousand years ago, suggesting regular use from this time; resistance to air pollution started to evolve in human populations at

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4576-484: The forests of today where traditional burning is prevented in order to encourage the growth of timber crops. Cool fires are generally conducted in the spring and autumn. They clear undergrowth, burning up biomass that could trigger a hot fire should it get too dense. They provide a greater variety of environments, which encourages game and plant diversity. For humans, they make dense, impassable forests traversable. Another human use for fire in regards to landscape management

4664-460: The fuel and oxidizer can more readily react. A flame is a mixture of reacting gases and solids emitting visible, infrared , and sometimes ultraviolet light, the frequency spectrum of which depends on the chemical composition of the burning material and intermediate reaction products. In many cases, such as the burning of organic matter , for example wood, or the incomplete combustion of gas, incandescent solid particles called soot produce

4752-646: The fuel; how to stoke the fire both in early phases and in maintenance phases; how to modulate the heat, flame, and smoke as suited to the desired application; how best to bank a fire to be revived later; how to choose, design, or modify stoves, fireplaces, bakery ovens, or industrial furnaces ; and so on. Detailed expositions of fire management are available in various books about blacksmithing, about skilled camping or military scouting , and about domestic arts . Burning fuel converts chemical energy into heat energy; wood has been used as fuel since prehistory . The International Energy Agency states that nearly 80% of

4840-582: The heads rubbed together. There was however a risk of the heads rubbing each other accidentally in their box. Such dangers were removed when the striking surface was moved to the outside of the box. The development of a specialized matchbook with both matches and a striking surface occurred in the 1890s with the American Joshua Pusey , who sold his patent to the Diamond Match Company . The striking surface on modern matchboxes

4928-407: The ignition point, flames are produced. The flame is the visible portion of the fire. Flames consist primarily of carbon dioxide, water vapor, oxygen and nitrogen. If hot enough, the gases may become ionized to produce plasma . Depending on the substances alight, and any impurities outside, the color of the flame and the fire's intensity will be different. Fire, in its most common form, has

5016-473: The ill-effects on workers through the introduction of inspections and regulations. Anton Schrötter von Kristelli discovered in 1850 that heating white phosphorus at 250 °C in an inert atmosphere produced a red allotropic form, which did not fume in contact with air. It was suggested that this would make a suitable substitute in match manufacture although it was slightly more expensive. Two French chemists, Henri Savene and Emile David Cahen, proved in 1898 that

5104-400: The industrial process for large-scale manufacture of red phosphorus after Schrötter's discoveries became known. By 1851, his company was producing the substance by heating white phosphorus in a sealed pot at a specific temperature. He exhibited his red phosphorus in 1851, at The Great Exhibition held at The Crystal Palace in London. The idea of creating a specially designed striking surface

5192-731: The invention of Charles Sauria, a French chemistry student at the time. Walker did not divulge the exact composition of his matches. Between 1827 and 1829, Walker made about 168 sales of his matches. It was however dangerous and flaming balls sometimes fell to the floor burning carpets and dresses, leading to their ban in France and Germany. Walker either refused or neglected to patent his invention. In 1829, Scots inventor Sir Isaac Holden invented an improved version of Walker's match and demonstrated it to his class at Castle Academy in Reading, Berkshire . Holden did not patent his invention and claimed that one of his pupils wrote to his father Samuel Jones,

5280-414: The leap into mass production, due to the expense, their cumbersome nature and inherent danger. An alternative method was to produce the ignition through friction produced by rubbing two rough surfaces together. An early example was made by François Derosne in 1816. His crude match was called a briquet phosphorique and it used a sulfur-tipped match to scrape inside a tube coated internally with phosphorus. It

5368-412: The match "head", consists of a bead of active ingredients and binder , often colored for easier inspection. There are two main types of matches: safety matches, which can be struck only against a specially prepared surface, and strike-anywhere matches, for which any suitably frictional surface can be used. The word match derives from Old French mèche , referring to the wick of a candle. Historically,

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5456-473: The more rapid spread of fire. These widespread fires may have initiated a positive feedback process, whereby they produced a warmer, drier climate more conducive to fire. The ability to control fire was a dramatic change in the habits of early humans. Making fire to generate heat and light made it possible for people to cook food, simultaneously increasing the variety and availability of nutrients and reducing disease by killing pathogenic microorganisms in

5544-435: The organisms in those ecosystems are adapted to or dependent upon that fire regime. Fire creates a mosaic of different habitat patches, each at a different stage of succession . Different species of plants, animals, and microbes specialize in exploiting a particular stage, and by creating these different types of patches, fire allows a greater number of species to exist within a landscape. Wildfire prevention programs around

5632-407: The oxidizer is oxygen from the surrounding air, the presence of a force of gravity , or of some similar force caused by acceleration, is necessary to produce convection , which removes combustion products and brings a supply of oxygen to the fire. Without gravity, a fire rapidly surrounds itself with its own combustion products and non-oxidizing gases from the air, which exclude oxygen and extinguish

5720-421: The oxidizing agent is typically oxygen , other compounds are able to fulfill the role. For instance, chlorine trifluoride is able to ignite sand . Fires start when a flammable or a combustible material, in combination with a sufficient quantity of an oxidizer such as oxygen gas or another oxygen-rich compound (though non-oxygen oxidizers exist), is exposed to a source of heat or ambient temperature above

5808-476: The paste-like mass into a jar, and dipped the pine sticks into the mixture and let them dry. When he tried them that evening, all of them lit evenly. He sold the invention and production rights for these noiseless matches to István Rómer, a Hungarian pharmacist living in Vienna , for 60 florins (about 22.5  oz t of silver). As a match manufacturer, Rómer became rich, and Irinyi went on to publish articles and

5896-600: The potassium chlorate in the match head. When the match is struck, the phosphorus and chlorate mix in a small amount and form something akin to the explosive Armstrong's mixture , which ignites due to the friction. The red color of the matchhead is due to addition of red dyes , not the red phosphorus content. The Swedes long held a virtual worldwide monopoly on safety matches, with the industry mainly situated in Jönköping, by 1903 called Jönköpings & Vulcans Tändsticksfabriks AB today Swedish Match . In France, they sold

5984-532: The potential to result in conflagration , which can lead to physical damage, which can be permanent, through burning . Fire is a significant process that influences ecological systems worldwide. The positive effects of fire include stimulating growth and maintaining various ecological systems. Its negative effects include hazard to life and property, atmospheric pollution, and water contamination. When fire removes protective vegetation , heavy rainfall can contribute to increased soil erosion by water . Additionally,

6072-495: The radiation is emitted in the visible and infrared bands. The color depends on temperature for the black-body radiation, and on chemical makeup for the emission spectra . The common distribution of a flame under normal gravity conditions depends on convection , as soot tends to rise to the top of a general flame, as in a candle in normal gravity conditions, making it yellow. In microgravity or zero gravity , such as an environment in outer space , convection no longer occurs, and

6160-780: The rights for the British safety match patent from the Lundström brothers. Friction matches made with white phosphorus as well as those made from phosphorus sesquisulfide can be struck on any suitable surface. They have remained particularly popular in the United States, even when safety matches had become common in Europe, and are still widely used today around the world, including in many developing countries , for such uses as camping, outdoor activities, emergency/survival situations, and stocking homemade survival kits . However, strike-anywhere matches are banned on all kinds of aircraft under

6248-478: The rights to their safety match patent to Coigent Père & Fils of Lyon , but Coigent contested the payment in the French courts, on the basis that the invention was known in Vienna before the Lundström brothers patented it. The British match manufacturer Bryant and May visited Jönköping in 1858 to try to obtain a supply of safety matches, but was unsuccessful. In 1862 it established its own factory and bought

6336-416: The splints to catch fire, and the odor was improved by the addition of camphor. The price of a box of 50 matches was one shilling . With each box was supplied a piece of sandpaper, folded double, through which the match had to be drawn to ignite it. Walker did not name the matches " Congreves " in honour of the inventor and rocket pioneer Sir William Congreve , as it is sometimes stated. The congreves were

6424-411: The term match referred to lengths of cord (later cambric ) impregnated with chemicals, and allowed to burn continuously. These were used to light fires and fire guns (see matchlock ) and cannons (see linstock ) and to detonate explosive devices such as dynamite sticks. Such matches were characterised by their burning speed i.e. quick match and slow match . Depending on its formulation,

6512-470: The top of a head, a tree stump, and so on. From 1860 to 1865 there was a huge transitional period in the evolution of lighting and accessories. Later, with the spread of electricity , spill vases gradually became redundant, as people relied less on fire for lighting. However they later became expensive collectibles on the antiques market. Agatha Christie refers to spill vases in her story " The Mysterious Affair at Styles " thus: "Poirot had walked over to

6600-524: The use of matches, fires were sometimes lit using a burning glass (a lens) to focus the sun on tinder , a method that could only work on sunny days. Another more common method was igniting tinder with sparks produced by striking flint and steel, or by sharply increasing air pressure in a fire piston . Early work had been done by alchemist Hennig Brand , who discovered the flammable nature of phosphorus in 1669. Others, including Robert Boyle and his assistant, Ambrose Godfrey , continued these experiments in

6688-677: The use of white phosphorus in 1872, followed by Denmark in 1874, France in 1897, Switzerland in 1898, and the Netherlands in 1901. An agreement, the Berne Convention , was reached at Bern, Switzerland, in September 1906, which banned the use of white phosphorus in matches. This required each country to pass laws prohibiting the use of white phosphorus in matches. The United Kingdom passed a law in 1908 prohibiting its use in matches after 31 December 1910. The United States did not pass

6776-573: The world may employ techniques such as wildland fire use and prescribed or controlled burns . Wildland fire use refers to any fire of natural causes that is monitored but allowed to burn. Controlled burns are fires ignited by government agencies under less dangerous weather conditions. Fire fighting services are provided in most developed areas to extinguish or contain uncontrolled fires. Trained firefighters use fire apparatus , water supply resources such as water mains and fire hydrants or they might use A and B class foam depending on what

6864-462: The world's power has consistently come from fossil fuels such as petroleum , natural gas , and coal in the past decades. The fire in a power station is used to heat water, creating steam that drives turbines . The turbines then spin an electric generator to produce electricity. Fire is also used to provide mechanical work directly by thermal expansion , in both external and internal combustion engines . The unburnable solid remains of

6952-410: Was both inconvenient and unsafe. The first successful friction match was invented in 1826 by John Walker , an English chemist and druggist from Stockton-on-Tees , County Durham. He developed a keen interest in trying to find a means of obtaining fire easily. Several chemical mixtures were already known that would ignite by a sudden explosion, but it had not been found possible to transmit the flame to

7040-456: Was called a "Vesuvian" or "flamer". The head was large and contained niter , charcoal and wood dust, and had a phosphorus tip. The handle was large and made of hardwood so as to burn vigorously and last for a while. Some even had glass stems. Both Vesuvians and Prometheans had a bulb of sulfuric acid at the tip which had to be broken to start the reaction. Samuel Jones introduced fuzees for lighting cigars and pipes in 1832. A similar invention

7128-409: Was commonly called a "drunkard's match" that prevented the accidental burning of the user's fingers. Other advances were made for the mass manufacture of matches. Early matches were made from blocks of woods with cuts separating the splints but leaving their bases attached. Later versions were made in the form of thin combs. The splints would be broken away from the comb when required. A noiseless match

7216-601: Was developed in 1844 by the Swede Gustaf Erik Pasch . Pasch patented the use of red phosphorus in the striking surface. He found that this could ignite heads that did not need to contain white phosphorus. Johan Edvard Lundström and his younger brother Carl Frans Lundström (1823–1917) started a large-scale match industry in Jönköping, Sweden around 1847, but the improved safety match was not introduced until around 1850–55. The Lundström brothers had obtained

7304-403: Was further refined in the following decades, culminating with the 'Promethean match' that was patented by Samuel Jones of London in 1828. His match consisted of a small glass capsule containing a chemical composition of sulfuric acid colored with indigo and coated on the exterior with potassium chlorate, all of which was wrapped up in rolls of paper. The immediate ignition of this particular form of

7392-504: Was invented in 1805 by Jean Chancel, assistant to Professor Louis Jacques Thénard of Paris . The head of the match consisted of a mixture of potassium chlorate , sulfur , gum arabic and sugar . The match was ignited by dipping its tip in a small asbestos bottle filled with sulfuric acid . This kind of match was quite expensive, however, and its use was also relatively dangerous, so Chancel's matches never really became widely adopted or in commonplace use. This approach to match making

7480-494: Was invented in 1836 by the Hungarian János Irinyi , who was a student of chemistry. An unsuccessful experiment by his professor, Meissner, gave Irinyi the idea to replace potassium chlorate with lead dioxide in the head of the phosphorus match. He liquefied phosphorus in warm water and shook it in a glass vial, until the two liquids emulsified . He mixed the phosphorus with lead dioxide and gum arabic , poured

7568-511: Was patented in 1839 by John Hucks Stevens in America. In 1832, William Newton patented the "wax vesta" in England. It consisted of a wax stem that embedded cotton threads and had a tip of phosphorus. Variants known as "candle matches" were made by Savaresse and Merckel in 1836. John Hucks Stevens also patented a safety version of the friction match in 1839. Chemical matches were unable to make

7656-494: Was set up and some newspapers collected donations from readers. The women and girls also solicited contributions. Members of the Fabian Society , including George Bernard Shaw , Sidney Webb , and Graham Wallas , were involved in the distribution of the cash collected. The strike and negative publicity led to changes being made to limit the health effects of the inhalation of white phosphorus. Attempts were made to reduce

7744-655: Was used in July 1944, towards the end of the Second World War , although its use did not gain public attention until the Vietnam War . Controlling a fire to optimize its size, shape, and intensity is generally called fire management , and the more advanced forms of it, as traditionally (and sometimes still) practiced by skilled cooks, blacksmiths , ironmasters , and others, are highly skilled activities. They include knowledge of which fuel to burn; how to arrange

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