Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 May 1892 — The Match. [ARTICLE]

The Match.

Seven cities contended to be the birthplace of Homer, and about as many nations claim the inventor of the match as their son. As a matter of fact, the inventor of this indispensable and highly important industrial article is a Hungarian chemist who is still living, and who himself tells us: “One day during the year 1836, while I was studying at the University of Vienna, I heard a lecture on peroxide of lead, and the lecturer rubbed the brown powder in a mortar with sulphur, which should have caused the sulphur to catch fire. However, he did not succeed in this, and it occurred to me that phosphorus instead of sulphur would ignite much quicker. This was the origin of the invention.”