Abstract
The development of the ordinary match followed thousands of years of fire-making by laborious means. It has been perfected in the twentieth century and its formulations have remained basically unchanged. This article discusses the history of matches, mechanism of fire production, manufacture of matches, safety, and economics. The use of matches has declined considerably with the reduction of tobacco consumption and the growth of lighters as ignition sources, but match books remain an important means of advertising.
Keywords: Matches; Fire production; Nonstandard; Military matches; Formulations; Strike-anywhere; Safety matches