On
This Day…
John
Walker sold the first friction match on this day in 1827.
Two
and a half years after Walker's invention was made public, Isaac Holden arrived,
independently, at the same idea of coating wooden splinters with sulphur. The
exact date of his discovery, according to his own statement, was October 1829.
Previously to this date, Walker's sales-book contains an account of no fewer
than 250 sales of friction matches, the first entry bearing the date 7 April
1827.[2] Already comfortably well off, he refused to patent his invention,
despite being encouraged to by Michael Faraday and
others, making it freely available for anyone to make. He received neither fame
nor wealth for his invention, although he was able to retire some years later.
The credit for his invention was attributed only after his death.
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