De Laugh & Smile: Top 10 facts about matches

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1. He discovered them when trying to rub off some chemicals that had solidified on the end of a stick he had been using to stir them.

2. He called them ‘Congreves’ after Sir William Congreve, who had invented a rocket used in war.

3. They were also known as ‘lucifer matches’. Nobody called them just ‘matches’ until 1830.

4. The word ‘match’ had previously been used for the wick of a candle or a piece of cord dipped in sulphur to be used to light a candle or lamp.

5. Cigarette lighters, which were invented in 1816, were around before matches were invented.

6. Book matches were invented in 1889 by Joshua Pusey, a cigar-smoking lawyer in Pennsylvania.

7. Around the world about half a trillion matches are used every year.

8. The word ‘phillumenist’ for a collector of matchbox covers was first recorded in 1943.

9. The Chinese are thought to have made a type of match in the sixth century by dipping pine sticks in sulphur and letting it dry.

10. Matchstalk Men And Matchstalk Cats And Dogs was a UK No 1 hit in 1978 for Brian and Michael and referred to paintings by LS Lowry.