Safety Matches & its evolution
Here I want to be sharing that how to match stick work in simple strike and its history. How it works ? Typically made of wood or paper, a match is used to start a fire under controlled situations. The match heads contain sulfur(s), potassium chlorate(KClO3) with powdered glass(silica), colorants, fillers, and a binder made of glue and starch. The striking surface consists of powdered glass or silica (sand), red phosphorus, binder, and filler. When hit a safety match, the glass-on-glass scraping makes high temperature upon friction to initiate the reaction between excess red phosphorus and potassium chlorate (KClO3). A little amount of red phosphorus is change as to white phosphorus vapour (P4), White phosphorus spontaneously ignites. Decomposing potassium chlorate and release oxygen. At this point, the sulfur starts to burn, which ignites the wood of the match. History of Safety Matches : In 1669, phosphorous was discovered by Hennig Brand – phosphorous was soon used in