What are the only ways people did not get fire before the appearance of matches. They rubbed wooden surfaces against one another, beat the spark with silicon, tried to catch the sunlight through a piece of glass. And when it was possible to do, carefully maintained burning coals in clay pots. And it was only at the end of the 18th century that it became easier to live - the French chemist Claude Bertolle had obtained a substance, which was subsequently called Bertholete salt, by experience. So in Europe in 1805, there were matches - "makanki" - thin larvae with heads smeared with Berthollet salt, which were lit after dipping them into a solution of concentrated sulfuric acid.
The world owes the invention of the first "dry" matches to the English chemist and pharmacist John Walker. In 1827, he discovered that if a mixture of antimony sulfide, bertolet's salt and gum arabic is applied to the tip of a wooden stick (this is such a viscous fluid released by acacia), and then the whole thing is dried in the air, then when rubbing such a match on the sandpaper Its head is quite easily ignited. And consequently, the need to carry a bubble with sulfuric acid disappears. Walker set up a small production of his matches, which were packed into tin pencil cases of 100 pieces, but did not earn much money on his invention. In addition, these matches had a terrible smell.
In 1830, 19-year-old French chemist Charles Soria invented phosphor matches, consisting of a mixture of bertholets salt, phosphorus and glue. These generally easily ignited when rubbed against any hard surface, for example, the sole of the boot. Matches of Soria did not smell, but were harmful to health, since white phosphorus is toxic.
In 1855, chemist Johan Lundstrom realized that red is sometimes better than white. The Swede applied red phosphorus to the surface of the sandpaper outside the small box and added the same phosphorus to the head of the match. Thus, they no longer harmed the health and easily ignited the previously prepared surface.
Finally, in 1889, Joshua Pucey invented a matchbox, but the patent for this invention was given to the American company Diamond Match Company, which came up with exactly the same, but with an "incendiary" surface from the outside (in Puce it was inside the box).