Light My Fire! Trivia Quiz

Answer: 577 AD, in China, to cook food

In a Chinese city under siege, tinder to start cooking fires could no longer be found. Driven by the complaints of unhappy women, an inventor came up with the idea of impregnating resinous pine splinters with sulphur. About four hundred years later, they were being commercially produced. Technically, these were predecessors to self-igniting modern matches, but they served the same purpose, and they were much easier to light than ordinary tinder. Fireworks were also invented in China, in the 12th century.

Answer: A gunpowder cannon fuse

A slow match was normally a length of cord which had been impregnated with incendiary chemicals to keep it burning slowly, so that it could be held ready for relatively long periods of time. The most common use was to fire cannon or to set off fireworks.

The rate of burn would be comparable to that of a cigarette left in an ashtray. This sort of match remained in use for centuries, especially at sea, for as long as gunpowder cannon remained the main naval armament.

Answer: By dipping the head into a jar of sulphuric acid

Chancel's match operated on a mixture of potassium chlorate, sulphur, sugar and rubber. However, for reasons we can easily understand, they never caught on. (Care to carry a little jar of sulphuric acid in your pocket? And look out for the splashing acid when you light a match!)

Answer: Lucifer matches

Matches were referred to as 'lucifers' for some time after that, and in some places they are still called that. The origin of the name 'lucifer' means 'light-bearer'. A misinterpretation of Isaiah 14:12 in the Bible gave rise to an erroneous but persistent belief that 'Lucifer' was a name for Satan, (and in fact Milton used 'Lucifer' in this way in 'Paradise Lost').

In fact, 'Lucifer' is or was a name for the 'Day Star' or dawn star, Venus.

Answer: Phosphorus vapour caused the occupational disease 'Phossy jaw'

'Phossy jaw', properly called 'phosphorus necrosis of the jaw' is a really nasty occupational disease which is caused by exposure to white phosphorus vapour. Effects include an abscessed jaw with rotting bone which glows in the dark, extreme pain, a foul discharge, and severe brain damage. If the affected bone is not surgically removed, the person will usually die of multiple organ failure (especially the liver, heart and kidneys) due to phosphorus poisoning.

The use of white phosphorus in matches was gradually outlawed, beginning in Scandinavia in the 1870s, but a worldwide ban was only accomplished fifty years later, in 1925.

Answer: Separation of the reactive chemicals between match head and striking surface

The inventor was Gustaf Pasch, and the commercial entrepreneurs were the Lundström brothers Johan and Carl. The key ingredients are potassium chlorate (in the match head) and red phosphorus (in the striking surface); the two react explosively but in very small quantity when united in the striking action, and then set off the other ingredients in the match head. Red phosphorus is much less dangerous than white phosphorus. By 1860 the Lundströms were producing over ten million match boxes per year from their factory in Jönköping. Swedish matches dominated the world market for nearly fifty years.

Answer: 60 000

Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage had planned to knock over a set of skittles, but the bowling ball blew by far above their target. There's a good reason the airlines (and airports) classify matches as dangerous goods, and most passenger jets won't transport them at all.

Answer: a used matchbook

Matchbooks (folders holding stiffened paper matches, or matches made of thin, pressed wood) began to come into use around the beginning of the twentieth century, becoming common in the 1940s and 1950s. Murder mystery and detective stories of this era were particularly fond of adopting the matchbook as a directing clue for the hero (or heroine).

They were usually decorated with a logo or other advertisement promoting the bar, hotel, restaurant or club where they were given out. Yes, the clue *could* have been any of the other items mentioned, but in this era the matchbook was so likely as to have become a cliche.

Answer: Possible weapon of mass destruction

Under the right conditions, a single lit match can be considered a weapon of mass destruction. Allow me to illustrate:
(1) The Buckweed fire in California, which is known to have been started by a child playing with matches: 150 square km burned, 63 structures destroyed, 4 injured.
(2) The London King's Cross fire, which a court found to have been most likely started by a dropped match: 31 killed, damage unknown.
(3) An Australian wildfire in 2009, in which a man was charged with arson and manslaughter: 4000 square km burned, many hundreds of homes destroyed, more than 180 lives lost.
There have been many other fires, even more destructive, where the cause might well have been a single match. High winds, dry weather and high temperatures are the contributory conditions.

Answer: Phillumenist

'Phillumenist' means a 'lover of light'. The word was coined in the 1940s, but no one knows by whom. One might also describe Hans Christian Andersen's 'Little Match Girl' as a phillumenist, but in a rather more profound way.
A lepidopterist is a butterfly collector, and a lucifologist is something I made up, although it might mean someone who studies matches. Many serious collectors are rather obsessive by nature, which might result in their being single, but I don't think that being a phillumenist necessarily means that one is single!