How matches are made

A safety match will not light on its own box. The chemistry is split between the head and the strip on the side.

stations: 5
things upstream: 35
raw sources: 9
steps from the ground: 9

The short version

A match is a wooden splint with a chemical head. Factories cut thin splints, soak them in paraffin so they burn evenly, and dip the tips in a paste that holds oxidizing and fuel chemicals. The reactive ingredients are split between the head and a rough strip on the box, so a safety match only lights when scraped on that strip.

Cut thin splints

Wood is sliced into thin sticks. Early mass-production matches were made from wooden blocks with cuts separating the splints, or from combs of splints that were broken off when needed.

Goes in
Lumber
Soak in paraffin

Splints were once soaked in sulfur. Safety matches switched to paraffin, which keeps the flame burning steadily and improves the smell.

Goes in
Paraffin wax
Dip the heads

One end of each splint is dipped into a paste that dries into a hard head. The head carries an oxidizer and fuel, together with starch and a little sulfur to bind and burn it. In a true safety match the part of the chemistry that ignites easily is kept off the head altogether.

Goes in
Sulfur
Coat the striking strip

A rough strip containing abrasive material and red phosphorus is applied to the side of the box. The two halves of the reaction meet only when the head is dragged across it. Red phosphorus replaced the poisonous white form that crippled early match workers.

Goes in
Cardboard Adhesive
Pack into boxes

Matches are counted into sliding boxes or folded into paper books, with the striking surface on the outside of the package.

End of the lineMatch

Worth repeating

The first commercially successful friction match was invented by English pharmacist John Walker, with a sale first recorded on 7 April 1827.
The idea of putting red phosphorus on a separate striking surface was patented in 1844 by the Swede Gustaf Erik Pasch.
White phosphorus matches caused a bone disease called phossy jaw in factory workers, and Finland banned them in 1872.