INTERESTING TO KNOW
In 1836, the chemical factory J.S. Bagge & Co:s Kemiska Fabrik i Stockholm was established. One of the managers, Gustaf Erik Pasch, experimented with matches and phosphorus. In 1844, the Swedish Professor Pasch succeeded in separating the components required for ignition between box and match stick and received a patent for invention of the safety match. This was a significant invention, which made Sweden world famous. Unfortunately, production was complicated and expensive.
The Swedish safety match, perfected and patented in 1852 by Johan Edvard Lundström and his younger brother Carl Frans Lundström, was a further improvement on Pasch’s invention. This match received a medal at the World’s Fair in Paris 1855. The Swedish matches where recognized throughout the world as market leading in quality and safety.
The Lundstöm brothers started a large-scale match industry in Jönköping, Sweden. In 1858 their company produced already around 12 million match boxes.
In 1864, the 28-year-old engineer Alexander Lagerman designed the first automated match machine, as a result manufacturing shifted from manual labor to mass production and Swedish safety matches were exported from Jönköping (Sweden) to all over the world and became world famous.
Nowadays environmental considerations are an important part of the manufacturing process and dangerous chemicals have been removed and matchboxes are made of recycled paper.
