Going back to "Tom Sawyer" we may recall this passage:

"All right. We want some bread and meat, and our pipes, and a little bag or two, and two or three kite-strings, and some of these new-fangled things they call lucifer matches. I tell you, many's the time I wished I had some when I was in there before."

So yeah, ninteenth century tech, done less well in the twenty-first. Hooray for us.

Rick

Originally Posted By Jimshaw
I did a little research on matches. wow they,ve been around a long time. The basic chemistry hasn't changes a lot with two exceptions, replacing the potassium perchlorate with Phosphorous sesquisulfide made them non-explosive, and by international convention between 1905 and 1915 the red phosphorous was replaced with white phosphorous which is less poisonous. I can't find any reference to the EPA or any any agencies getting involved and changing modern match chemistry to make it safer. The manufacturers do have control over the binders and other elements that they use as well as the materials of the match sticks and the amount of material put on them so there are probably changes in manufacturing technique to make them cheaper as they are suffering from the prevalence of inexpensive butane lighters.
Jim.
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--Rick