International holidays - International Match Day

Few people know that March 2 is celebrated as International Match Day There are no festivities on this day, but you can visit the match museum (Russia, Rybinsk) There you can see ancient types of matches, as well as admire a collection of matchboxes There are similar museums in Germany, Sweden and Switzerland Modern technologies have stepped far forward, but still such a simple thing as a match remains our assistant, which saves energy and time I struck a match on the box and it burned But once upon a time, getting fire was a very difficult task; it was obtained by friction or carving The very first matches were invented by the chemist Chapsel in France in 1805 To light such a match, use a lens or a drop of sulfuric acid Therefore, such matches were quite dangerous And in 1847, the scientist and chemist Boettcher produced the safety matches that we use to this day In 1851, such matches began to be produced in Sweden, and therefore for a long time they were called “Swedish matches” It is known that by 1848 there were already more than 30 match factories in Russia What is a modern match? This is a wooden stick (most often made of aspen) with a special flammable mixture at one end The composition of a match head is not only sulfur, as most people think It contains Berthollet salt, chromium peak, pyrolusite, zinc white, red lead, glue, ground glass and, of course, sulfur itself In addition to ordinary household matches, there are hunting matches (resistant to wind and rain), thermal matches (burn at a higher temperature), fireplace matches (differing in length), cigarette matches, signal matches (have a colored flame), and decorative ones The material for a matchstick can be not only wood, but also wax or cardboard There are matches that can ignite if rubbed against any surface, not necessarily against a box Today, matches have found other uses besides the main one Craftsmen make crafts from matches, children are taught to count using matches (instead of counting sticks), they are used for magic tricks, instead of toothpicks, cotton swabs, etc