2 March - Friday
International Match Day
Yuanxiao Lantern Festival in China
Holi - a holiday of spring and bright colors in India
Cinema award "Cesar"
Kazyukas Fair
1930 Published an article by Joseph Stalin "Vertigo from Success"
1983 Birthday CD - in the UK, the first CD
Every year on March 2, the world celebrates one of the unusual holidays - the International Match Day. Why this date was chosen for its establishment - the information varies. However, what are the opinions that matches have been for many decades one of the irreplaceable things and the most important elements of human life. However, even today they continue to play an important role in our everyday life, as a convenient and cheap way of obtaining fire.
Match - a stick of combustible material (most often wood), which has an incendiary head on its end, serving to obtain an open fire. And, chirking a match on the boxes, we do not even think about the history of this very practical and surprising invention.
But it was very difficult to build fire in antiquity - it was extracted by friction or carving. And even after the invention of the flint, which became widespread throughout the Middle Ages, its firing required a lot of effort and a certain skill, since the cutting of a spark in this "apparatus" was the most unpleasant moment. And only then did someone come up with the tip of the dry larva in pre-melted sulfur. Then this mercury head was pressed to the tinder, it instantly flashed. The whole of the ray was also engaged in the fire. So the first matches appeared, which became the object of attention of chemists - many of them were engaged in their improvement, trying to make them more convenient and safe.
Great progress in improving matches was made with the discovery of phosphorus. The German scientist A. Gankwitz guessed to produce matches with a sulfur coating, which were ignited when rubbing against a piece of phosphorus. And it became possible to make them convenient for wide use, after the invention of the salt of potassium chlorate (better known as Bertholletov) by the French chemist K.Bertoll in the late 18th century. It was he who proved that the flame could be the result of a different chemical reaction - by dropping sulfuric acid into the salt-seared salt, a flame will appear.
This discovery allowed us to approach the issue of obtaining fire from a completely different angle. And since that time in many countries scientists have begun to find convenient and safe matches, and international patent law did not exist then. Therefore, today there is no consensus as to who was the first inventor of matches, such as we know them today. In this regard, it makes sense to talk only about their wide industrial production.
Most often, the history of modern matches researchers date to 1805, when the French chemist Shapsel demonstrated the first self-igniting matches. They were wooden sticks with a head made from a mixture of sulfur, Berlotole salt with the addition of cinnabar (it served to color the incendiary mass in a red shade). In sunny weather, a match could be ignited when using a lens, and on other days - when combined with a droplet of sulfuric acid. The first manufactory for the production of such matches was registered in Vienna in 1813. These first matches were incredibly expensive and, of course, very dangerous, because sulfuric acid during the ignition of the head could splash and cause serious chemical burns. Therefore, the work to improve matches continued.
When looking for another flammable substance, white phosphorus, discovered in 1669 by alchemist Brand, was noticed. According to one version, a new sample of matches, consisting of a mixture of Berthollet salt, white phosphorus and glue, was invented by the English pharmacist John Walker in 1827, on the other - the French chemist Charles Soria in the 1830s. However, these phosphor matches were very flammable, since they even caught fire from mutual friction in the box and when rubbing against any hard surface (for example, on the sole). In addition, white phosphorus is very toxic, which was very harmful to health (subsequently production of matches using white phosphorus was banned in almost all countries).
This problem was solved only after two decades, after the discovery in 1847 of a non-toxic red phosphorus. The German chemist Bethher made his own match pattern - he mixed the salt sealer, sulfur with glue, and poured dice into it, previously covered with paraffin. And to set this lighter on fire, he created a special surface - he lubricated the paper with a composition containing a certain amount of red phosphorus. New matches were steadily lit and gave a yellow, even flame. They did not smoke, they did not have an unpleasant smell. The first such "safe matches" began to be produced in Sweden in 1851, the Lundstrem brothers, so for a long time such matches were called "Swedish". In 1855, they were presented at the International Exhibition in Paris and received a gold medal. Since that moment, the match has begun a triumphal procession around the world and after some improvements has reached our days. The modern match does not contain sulfur and chlorine compounds, instead of them paraffins and chlorine-free oxidizers are used.
In Russia, the release of phosphorus matches began around the 1830s, but documentary evidence for this has not been preserved. It is well known that by 1848 there were more than 30 match factories in our country. But the law that passed in the same year, allowing the production of matches only in St. Petersburg and Moscow and limiting the retail sale of matches, brought all production to naught. And only after 20 years it was again allowed "everywhere, both in the Empire and in the Kingdom of Poland, to manufacture the phosphor matches." Then began the gradual mechanization of match production. So, by 1913 in Russia there were 251 registered production of safe matches. Moreover, most match factories were equipped with mechanical machines that worked mainly from steam engines.
But in connection with the subsequent revolutionary events, the consequences of wars and devastation, the production of matches in Russia has steadily declined. Only by the early 1940s, after the reconstruction of the factories, the match-making industry was revived, and the country even began to export matches on a commercial scale. But the destruction during the Great Patriotic War brought these efforts to nothing, only by the mid-1960s the match crisis in the country was largely eliminated. However, already in the 1990s, in the conditions of a market economy, the production of matches in Russia again fell into decay, which was facilitated by the mass production of disposable lighters. Today, only a few match factories have managed to survive and develop in modern conditions.
By the way, in our country the word "match" has come from the Old Russian word "spoke" (a pointed wooden stick). Initially for the designation of matches in the modern sense, the phrase "incendiary (or samogarnye) matches" was used, but eventually the first word began to drop, and then completely disappeared from everyday use.
And today matches, thanks to various materials and technologies, are very diverse. For example, according to the material of the match stick, they are divided into wooden (made of softwood), cardboard and wax; by the method of ignition - on the heating (ignited when rubbing against a special surface) and spiky (ignited when rubbing against any surface). In Russia the most common are aspen twins. The matchbox of the Soviet / Russian model (according to GOST) has a length of 5 cm, which our compatriots often used (and use) to measure the size of other items.
In addition to the usual (household) matches are made special. For example, hunting (or storm) - they burn in the wind and even in the rain; Thermal (giving a higher temperature at the combustion, and hence more heat); signal (with colored flame); cigarette (for smoking cigars); fireplace (very long matches to light fireplaces) and others. And there are even decorative (mainly for collectors), produced in a limited edition with different pictures on boxes (like postage stamps).
But it must also be noted that matches for their entire rich history, in addition to its main purpose, are used very diversely. Here are just a few examples - instead of counting sticks for teaching children, like a conditional monetary unit for various card games and other games, for making match houses and other structures, for drawing lots, for various logical games, as toothpicks and the basis for a cotton swab, like props for tricks ... It is no wonder that in some European countries (in Sweden, Switzerland and Germany) there are Museums of matches. By the way, there is a small museum of matches in Russia - in Rybinsk.