The story behind the Panama Canal Company Matches
Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag and smile,
smile, smile.
While you've a Lucifer to light your fag,
Smile, a boy thats the style....
So sang British soldiers marching to war in both World
Wars. A Lucifer was a type of match, now no longer available, remembered only in the song and probably by matchbox collectors.
Given that they contained poisonous phosphorus, preserved with sugar and that several children died each year from sucking
them, it is just as well.
Matches are basically chemically treated sticks that burst
into flames when struck. Today, around 500 billion matches are used every year, with around 200 billion from matchbooks. So,
how did it all begin?
First Light
We don't exactly know when humans first started making
fire by rubbing sticks together, followed by fire making by using flint and steel. The Greeks told that Prometheus brought
fire from the Gods. We do know rather more about the history of matches, though.
Sticks with sulphur at one or both ends were originally
used to get fires going which had already started and the largest were used to light chandeliers. Sometimes, lengths of thick
cotton or flax dipped in sulphur were also used.
In 1680, an Irishman named Robert Boyle discovered that
if you rubbed phosphorus and sulphur together, they would instantly burst into flames. He has discovered the principle that
was the precursor of the modern match.
Following this discovery, various other methods were tried,
some using involved gaseous hydrogen, but all were cumbersome and dangerous.
Strikeable matches
The next discovery was by an Englishman. In 1827 a pharmacist
called John Walker produced 'sulphuretted peroxide strikeables', which were a yard long4, and then developments followed reasonably
quickly. Samuel Jones of the Strand copied John Walkers invention, and it was Jones who first sold it as a Lucifer, c 1829.
There was a rather dangerous match invented in 1828 called
a Promethean. It had a small glass bulb with sulphuric acid, and the bulb was coated with potassium chlorate, sugar and gum,
wrapped in a paper spill. You break the glass bulb with your teeth to 'strike' this match. Charles Darwin used it and was
much taken by it.
In 1832, small phosphorus matches were manufactured in
Germany; they were extremely hazardous. They could ignite with a series of explosions that scattered dangerous bits of fire
over the carpet. They would also explode when trodden upon, which increased the danger of having them around.
In 1836, Alonzo D Phillips registered a patent in the United
States for the manufacturing of friction matches called 'Loco focos'. A Loco-foco (supposed to mean 'self-lighting') was originally
a self-igniting cigar patented in New York in 1834 (and probably the original exploding cigar). It then became applied to
the Lucifer match. It was later applied to a political party, the Democrats, after an incident at a party meeting in 1835
at which opponents of the radical element within the party turned out the gas lights, but the radicals promptly produced candles
which they lit with loco-focos.
In 1855, a Swede, Johan Edvard Lundström produced the first
red phosphorus 'safety' matches, following the discovery of amorphous (red) phosphorus in 1845 by Anton von Schroetter. The
safety match had been invented by fellow Swede Gustaf Erik Pasch, a professor in chemistry. The safety aspect was that the
match did not contain all the elements for combustion. This was achieved by a chemical reaction between the match head and
the striking surface6. Red phosphorus was first manufactured in quantity by the firm Albright in Birmingham, England from
1851.
Joshua Pusey, an American in 1889, after he wondered why
they had to be so bulky, invented book matches. Interestingly they didn't take off until the Mendelssohn Opera Company used
them to advertise their opening night, and suddenly, everyone wanted them. Matchbooks are still used to advertise such things
as restaurants and they are available from some outlets with your personal details on them.
So, now you know the rest of the story of those world famous matches
made exclusively for the Panama Canal Company. After the treaties these matches began to disappear and the following matches
were seen in the old Canal Zone. For me it just didnt seem the same.