History of Matches Essay

A agree is a short stick of woodwind instrument or peel of cardboard with a solidified form of flammable chemicals deposited on one devastation. When that end is struck on a stony approach, the clash gene governs enough pepperiness to inflame the chemicals and micturate a small flame. some(prenominal)(prenominal) the Tempteres, called strike- eachwhere copulatees, may be go ballisticd by impinging them on any rocky come to the fore. Other tick offes, called asylum matches, go away ignite only when they be struck on a special bouldery surface arresting certain chemicals.HistoryThe first know commit of matches was in 577 during the siege of a town in northern China. Women in the town employ sticks coat with a mixture of chemicals to start plunders for cooking and heating, olibanum allowing them to conserve their limited fuel by putting the fires away between uses. The elaborate of this technique were subsequently lost to history. It was non until 1826 that John Walker of England invented the first friction matches. Walkers matches were ignited by drawing the heads done a folded plunk of paper coated with ground glass. He began selling them in 1827, but they were knockout to descend and were not a success. In 1831, Charles Sauria of France developed a match that utilize clear match. These matches were strike-anywhere matches and were much easier to ignite. Unfortunately, they were as well as simplified to ignite and ca utilize some unwilled fires. White phosphorus also proven to be highly toxic. Workers in match plants who inhaled white phosphorus fumes ofttimes suffe violent from a horrible degeneration of the jawbones cognize as phossy jaw.Despite this health hazard, white phosphorus affectd to be used in strike-anywhere matches until the early 1900s, when goernment challenge in the United States and Europe forced manufacturers to switch to a nontoxic chemical. In 1844 Gustaf Pasch of Sweden proposed placing some of the matchs blaze ing violentients on a separate impinging surface, earlier than incorporating them all into the match head, as an extra precaution against accidental dismissal. This suppositioncoupled with the discovery of little-reactive, nontoxic red phosphorusled J. E. Lundstrom of Sweden to introduce safety matches in 1855. Although safety matches posed less of a hazard, many people stillness preferred the convenience of strike-anywhere matches, and both types continue to be used today. The first matchbook matches were procure in the United States by Joshua Pussey in 1892. The Diamond Match Company purchased the rights to this unvarnished in 1894.At first, these new matches were not well accepted, but when a create from raw material company bought 10 million matchbooks to b be their product, sales soargond. Early match manufacturing was primarily a manual deed. Mechanization lento took over quite a littles of the operation until the first reflex(a) pistol m atch machine was patented by Ebenezer Beecher in 1888. Modern match manufacturing is a highly automated process development continuous-operation machines that can produce as many as 10 million matches in an eight-hour shift with only a hardly a(prenominal) people to monitor the operation.Raw Materials wood used to open matchsticks must(prenominal) be porous enough to absorb respective(a) chemicals, and rigid enough to withstand the turn forces encountered when the match is struck. They should also be straight-grained and easy to work, so that they may be right away cut into sticks. White pine and aspen ar two common woods used for this purpose. Once the matchsticks be formed, they be pixilated in ammonium ion phosphate, which is a fire retardant. This pr in timets the stick from smoldering after the match has gone out. During manufacture, the striking ends of the matchsticks argon souse in hot paraffin oil climb. This provides a small amount of fuel to take the fla me from the burning chemicals on the jacket crown to the matchstick itself. Once the paraffin burns off, the ammonium phosphate in the matchstick prevents any just combustion. The heads of strike-anywhere matches be composed of two parts, the jumper lead and the fanny. The confidential information contains a mixture of phosphorus sesquisulfide and super C chlorate.Phosphorus sesquisulfide is a highly reactive, non-toxic chemical used in ordinate of white phosphorus. It is easily ignited by the heat of friction against a rough surface. The potassium chlorate supplies the oxygen needed for combustion. The tip also contains powdered glass and opposite non lamentable filler material to growth the friction and control the burning rate. fauna glue is used to bind the chemicals together, and a small amount of zinc oxide may be added to the tip to give it a whitish color. The base contains many of the aforementioned(prenominal) materials as the tip, but has a littler amount of phosphorus sesquisulfide. It also contains sulfur, rosin, and a small amount of paraffin wax to sustain combustion. A water-soluble dishonor may be added to give the base a color such(prenominal) as red or blue. The heads of safety matches be composed of a single part. They contain atomic number 51 trisulfide, potassium chlorate, sulfur, powdered glass, inert fillers, and animal glue. They may also accommodate a water-soluble dye. Antimony trisulfide cannot be ignited by the heat of friction, even in the presence of an oxidizing agent same potassium chlorate, and it requires another(prenominal) source of ignition to start the combustion.That source of ignition comes from the striking surface, which is deposited on the side of the match rap or on the back cover of the matchbook. The striking surface contains red phosphorus, powdered glass, and an adhesive such as gum arabic or urea formaldehyde. When a safety match is rubbed against the striking surface, the friction genera tes enough heat to convert a trace of the red phosphorus into white phosphorus. This immediately reacts with the potassium chlorate in the match head to produce enough heat to ignite the antimony trisulfide and start the combustion. Match boxwoodes and match books are made from cardboard. The finned peels of cardboard used to make the matches in match books are called a comb.The ManufacturingProcessMatches are manufactured in several(prenominal) stages. In the case of wooden-stick matches, the matchsticks are first cut, prepared, and run shortd to a shop area. When the matchsticks are needed, they are inserted into holes in a long perforated blast. The belt carries them by the rest of the process, where they are souse into several chemical tanks, dried, and packaged in boxes. Cardboard-stick matches used in match books are bear upon in a similar manner. hither is a typical sequence of trading operations for manufacturing wooden-stick matchesCutting the matchsticks1 Logs of white pine or aspen are clamped in a debarking machine and slow rotate slice spinning webs cut away the out bark of the tree. 2 The stripped pounds are hence cut into short lengths roughly 1.6 ft (0.5 m) long. Each length is dictated in a peeler and rotated while a sharp, flat blade peels a long, thin sheet of wood from the satellite(a) surface of the log. This sheet is about 0.1 in (2.5 mm) thick and is called a cladding. The skin blade moves inward toward the core of the rotating log until only a small, round endure is left. This post is discarded and may be used for fuel or minify to wood chips for use in devising paper or chipboard.Stripped logs are placed in a peeler, which cuts a sheet about 0.1 in (2.5 mm) thick, called veneer, from the log. The veneer proceeds to the chop, which cuts it into small sticks. The sticks are slopped in a dilute consequence of ammonium phosphate and dried, removing splinters and form solution. The matches are dumped into a ret urn hopper, which lines them up. A perforated conveyor belt holds them tiptop pop out while they are dipped in a series of trey tanks. The matches are dried for 50-60 minutes ahead they are packaged. 3 The sheets of veneer are stacked and fed into a chopper. The chopper has many sharp blades that cut down through the stack to produce as many as 1,000 matchsticks in a single stroke.Treating the matchsticks4 The cut matchsticks are dumped into a large ad valorem tax modify with a dilute solution of ammonium phosphate. 5 After they substantiate ladened for several minutes, the matchsticks are removed from the vat and placed in a large, rotating drum, analogous a clothes dryer. The tumbling bring through inside the drum dries the sticks and acts to polish and pick them of any splinters or crystalised chemical. 6 The dried sticks are so dumped into a hopper and blown through a metal duct to the computer storage area. In some operations the sticks are blown directly into th e matchmaking facility rather than going to storage.Forming the match heads7 The sticks are blown from the storage area to a conveyor belt that transfers them to be inserted into holes on a long, continuous, perforated steel belt. The sticks are dumped into several v-shaped feed hoppers that line them up with the holes in the perforated belt. Plungers push the matchsticks into the holes crossways the width of the slowly moving belt. A typical belt may have 50-100 holes spaced across its width. Any sticks that do not seat firmly into the holes resolve to a catch area to a lower place the belt and are transferred back to the feed hoppers. 8 The perforated belt holds the matchsticks upside down and immerses the lower caboodle of the sticks in a bath of hot paraffin wax. After they emerge from the wax, the sticks are allowed to dry. 9 Further down the line, the matchsticks are positioned over a tray change with a legato solution of the match head chemicals. The tray is then moment arily raised to immerse the ends of the sticks in the solution.Several thousand sticks are coated at the same time. This circle repeats itself when the abutting batch of sticks is in position. If the matches are the strike-anywhere kind, the sticks move on to another tray change with a solution of the tip chemicals, and the match ends are immersed in that tray, only this time not quite as deeply. This gives strike-anywhere matches their characteristic two-toned appearance. 10 After the match heads are coated, the matches must be dried very slowly or they will not light properly. The belt loops up and down several times as the matches dry for 50-60 minutes. case the matches11 The cardboard cozy and outmost portions of the match boxes are cut, printed, folded, and glued together in a separate area. If the box is to contain safety matches, the chemicals for the striking strip are mixed with an adhesive and are automatically applied to the outer portion of the box. 12 When the matches are dry, the belt moves them to the box area, where a multi-toothed wheel pushes the finished matches out of the holes in the belt. The matches fall into hoppers, which measure the proper amount of matches for each box. The matches are dumped from the hoppers into the inner portions of the cardboard match boxes, which are moving along a conveyor belt located below the hoppers. Ten or more boxes may be alter at the same time. 13 The outer portions of the match boxes move along another conveyor belt running parallel to the first belt. Both conveyors stop momentarily, and the filled inner portions are pushed into the outer portions. This cycle of filling the inner portions and pushing them into the outer portions is repeated at a rate of about once per second. 14 The filled match boxes are moved by conveyor belt to a machine, which groups them and places them in a corrugated cardboard box for shipping.Quality ControlThe chemicals for each portion of the match head are weighe d and thrifty exactly to avoid any change in the match composition that expertness affect performance. Operators constantly monitor the operation and opthalmicly inspect the product at all stages of manufacture. In addition to visual inspection and other normal tint control procedures, match production requires grim attention to safety. Considering that there may be more than one million matches accustomed to the perforated belt at any time means that the working surround must be kept justify of all sources of accidental ignition.The FutureThe use of matches in the United States has steadily declined in the last few decades. This decline is the aftermath of several factors the availability of inexpensive, disposable lighters the falling off in the use of tobacco products by the general public and the development of automatic lighting devices for gas-fired stoves. Of the matches that are sold, book matches far outsell wooden stick matches because of their ad value. Worldwid e, matches will continue to be in demand for the foreseeable future, although their production will probably follow the demand and reincarnate to other countries.Where to Learn MoreBooksBennett, H., ed. The chemical Formulary, Vol. XV. Chemical Publishing Company, Inc., 1970. PeriodicalsBean, M.C. History of the Match, Antiques and assembling Hobbies. September, 1992, pp. 42-44. Chris Cavette