There are many things that were once so much more important than they are now. Carriages are part of it, flails, stamps, stirrups, sleepyheads. But also matches.
human dream
Being able to rekindle a fire relatively easily yourself has long been something of a human dream, albeit unlike other human dreams such as flying one, which are very fundamental to everyday life. Turn on the light? Not possible without an open fire until not much more than 100 years ago. Get the four walls warm? Cook? Bake? decoction? wake up?
Up until the 19th century, the most common methods of making fire were basically those used back in the Stone Age: flint, firesteel, tinder made from mushrooms or the like – or embers that were kept and even carried around.
Too flammable, too toxic
Matches of the kind that are still widespread today were their own small revolution in the cardboard box during the Industrial Revolution. They were sold very soon there. The friction surface on it made comfortable and safe ignition possible in the first place. An flammable mixture was only created when the substances on the friction surface and ignition head came together mechanically.
That was different before: The early matches were often so flammable that they had to be classified as dangerous goods. In addition, for a long time there was the acutely and chronically highly toxic white phosphorus. In particular, it made the workers who made matches sick. So illthat we don’t want to write specifically about it here. Because of him, matches were also popular aids in murder and suicide.
In any case, the financial authorities recognized early on that the state could make good money with this heating tool, which was needed again and again. The result was special ignition goods taxes, but also state-imposed monopolies on production. Also in Germany.
The GDR had been ignoring the maximally imperialist regulation since 1950. In the Federal Republic of Germany, on the other hand, this monopoly only fell much later. A law on this came into force shortly before another major liberalization – the introduction of commercial television a year later – 40 years ago today, on January 16, 1983. It was from the crisis year of 1930. At that time it was one swedish factory owners who, in return, granted cheap loans with a current value of around two billion euros. The monopoly still has an effect today. “Swedish match“, successor to the company Svenska Tändsticks, which at the time also secured monopolies in numerous other countries, is still one of the largest matchstick producers in the world today.
Matches are used far less today than at their heyday, because of the cheap lighter, because of the heater that you simply turn on, because of the electric stove. And so forth. But even after the monopolies, matchmaking remained a very lucrative business, also because there was a huge market beyond the tobacconist. Because for decades, the boxes were one of the most important promotional items: cheap, practical, and with much better space for the advertising message than, say, a ballpoint pen.
To home page
