January 20, 2004 > Test Your Hardware IQ

1. Matches were invented by:
   
   
   
   1. The Illinois Iron Works in 1850 to start the foundry furnace
      
   2. By Julius Striker who formed the Diamond Match Company
      
   3. By John Walker, a English pharmacist
      
   4. Inventor Thomas Edison.
      
   
   

2. The matchbook was invented by American attorney, Joshua Pusey and patented in 1892. The idea was licensed to the Diamond Match Company who recognized what potential for matchbooks?
   

3. The original match head was made of what?
   
   
   
   1. Flint and steel slivers
      
   2. Habenero Peppers
      
   3. Coal and saltpeter
      
   4. Antimony and potash
      
   
   

Answers:

1. c. Matches were invented by British pharmacist John Walker, by accident.
   

2. The Diamond Match Company recognized a potential for advertising on the cover. The first matchbook advertising was in 1898 for the Mendelson Opera Company. 3. d. The original match head was composed of antimony and potash. The happy accident occurred when the previously mentioned pharmacist stirred a mixture of the two and couldn't get it off of the wooden stick he was using. He rubbed it on the floor and...fire! John Walker marketed a sulfur-tipped splint called a "Congreves." The first matches were explosive in nature and unpredictably dangerous to handle. He began manufacturing matches put in a pasteboard box with a sandpaper strip for striking but never patented his invention.