Robert Boyle invented the first match in the 17th Century. In 1844 Johan and Carl Lundström started their famous factory in Jönköping, and at the World Fair in 1855 they won high praise and medals for this useful invention.
We took a couple of days in December to visit the old factory area, and this is the entrance where you can see some giant matches lit near the main road.
The matches are made from aspen trees, and from one tree only you can get about 370000 matches. Why aspen? Aspen is porous and yet sustainable, has no resin and burns with a clear, even flame.
We saw all the machines used and a gallery on how bad the phosphorous was to the workers the first few years before the safety match was created by Gustaf Erik Pasch in 1844. People were poisoned and some even died.
On display were also many of the beautiful covers made for the match boxes. I remember some of them from my childhood, but mostly of course the sun – match – boy. My favourite is the Tiger – hanging on the wall too. Unfortunately the designers´ and artists´ names (from many countries) were lost over time, and only one of them was truly recognised – Einar Nerman, who made the little boy in the first gallery far left. That boy was his own son, Tom, portrayed in 1936.
We had a great day of nostalgia and a lovely fish and chips dinner at a renowned restaurant.
Leya 
What a fascinating piece of history! It’s incredible to think how something as simple as a match has evolved over centuries. The old factory visit must have been so interesting, especially seeing those giant matches by the entrance. For more cool historical insights and stories, feel free to check out my site at [The Subway Surfer](https://thesubwaysurfer.com/). Thanks for sharing this!
Thank you, it was. History is fascinating.
An unusual and interesting day out, Ann-Christine, and I love that first photo too.
♥
Interesting
Interesting history
How interesting. I can see why some people collect matchboxes.
In fact they sold old covers – and I bought some!
Loved this post, reminds me of the habit of collecting matches, we had a bowl full of them 😊
You did? I read from quite some people that they collected them too. We never did. But I bought some covers at the factory.
What a wonderful history lesson! The photos are great. I especially liked the entrance photo with the indirect light coming from the openings. It’s interesting we don’t always think about what it takes to create such common things we use often.
True – and often they have very interesting stories to tell.
Totally new and hugely interesting information – thank you so much for the ‘lesson’ 🙂 !
You provided wonderful homework with this post! Your aspens looked so much like my beloved birches I just had to go talk to my beloved Mr Google – and did I learn a lot 🙂 ! I WAS right when I thought of the ‘connection’ – but aspens grow in ‘clones’ etc et al! Love your post, remember so many matchboxes from my childhood – think I collected some . . .
Thank you, Eha – i have understood that many people collected them, like you say!
You are welcome!
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