Category Everyday Science

            One end of a match, a handy tool for producing fire, is coated with a material that can be ignited by frictional heat. The fire is created by striking the match against a suitable surface.

            The invention of matchsticks is still ambiguous. Primitive men used many unknown tools as ways to create fire. However, it is said that the first chemical matches were initially made by the Romans. They used matches in the form of lengths of wood dipped into molten sulphur, and ignited with the heat from smouldering tinder.

              In 1680, Robert Boyle discovered that when rubbed together, phosphorous and sulphur created flame. Even after this crucial discovery, it took over 150 years to produce self-igniting matches.

            Something similar to modern-day matches was invented by John Walker, an English chemist. Walker called them friction lights; they had tips coated with potassium chloride and antimony sulphide paste. They were ignited when rubbed against sandpaper.

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            It was during the 1790s, that gas lighting was first invented. Gaslights were first installed on the streets of London in 1807. By the 1860s, the city was totally lit by gas.

            Though gaslights were a great deal back then, they had many disadvantages too, mainly because they provided only very dim light.

            It was the English chemist Humphry Davy who introduced the possibility of using electricity to heat metal strips, and make them provide light. There were still reservations about using electric lighting for households. Later, in 1878 the English physicist Joseph Swan produced incandescent light that lasted for a few hours.

            The electric light was not literally ‘invented’ by Thomas Alva Edison, although he could be said to have created the first commercially practical incandescent light bulb in 1879.

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