Matches

Ever take the time to examine a book of paper matches? Here is another example of a simple object which most of us take for granted, yet which displays a great deal of ingenuity in its design.

It is made up of two parts: a rectangular piece of heavy paper or card, folded in three places. The lower fold encloses two square pieces of card, each of which has been given thirteen equal and parallel incisions. The cuts are not through the entire card, so that the base is intact, and forms the matrix of the resulting fifteen matches on each card.

In the manufacturing process the fifteen matches on each card are offset ever so slightly, and this offset, in a fashion similar to the arrangement of the fifty stars of the American flag, produces two rows of matches on each card, one of eight, and one of seven. Thus in the normal 30-match matchbook, when viewed from the top of the striking tips of the matches, will show an arrangement of 7-8-7-8. (Our flag of course has 6-5-6-5-6-5-6-5-6 stars displayed.)

The two cards of fifteen matches each are held in the lower fold of the matchbook cover by means of a small metal staple the size of the staples that hold a tea-bag's thread to its label and to the bag itself, as I have outlined in a previous posting. (One generally does not pay much attention to tiny staples such as these, but they are ubiqitous, if we only bothered to look. We are indeed a staple-bound society.)

We were advised as children never to play with matches, and that is surely good advice. But we all subsequently learned how to peel off a match from a matchbook, strike its volatile head against the black sandpapery strip along the lower edge of its cover, and cause the phosphorus-impregnated head to flare into flame.

I must regrettably admit that in my time I have held that flame to the end of more than a few cigarettes and briar pipes. So much so that in the course of my travels I have collected matchbooks and matchboxes from all corners of the globe. They have become nostalgic items, like the immigration stamps on my passport.