History of fire-making kindles a collection
Our ancestors living without electricity or gas depended on fire for light at night, for warmth in freezing weather and for cooking food.
Having no lighters or even matches, they used primitive ways to start a fire, said Li Yongjin, a collector of matches and a member of the Shanghai Collection Association. He has a display of the history of fire-making in his home, featuring thousands of items.
In the very beginning, our ancestors started a fire by generating friction to cause sparks, he told me. In the Bronze Age, the Chinese used yangsui, or bronze concave mirrors, to concentrate sunlight onto tinder. The method later evolved into the use of flint and steel to create sparks.
Li showed me the ancient steels, which are beyond a simple tool. The steels are covered with leather engraved with silver and decorated with auspicious patterns like Chinese knotting and the character fu, which means “fortune.” The steels were also an ornament worn by men. It is said that tinder used under the leather cover were dried leaves of silvery wormwood.
“Someone said matches were invented by Chinese over 1,000 years ago, which in my opinion is not strictly true,” said Li. “The matchlike item they refer to is called qudeng in China. It contains some elements of matches.”
As early as the Northern Zhou Dynasty (AD 557-581), qudeng — a kindling tool made of cedar wood shavings — existed. Similar to matches, sulfur was applied to the tip of the shavings.
Li paid around 2,000 yuan (US$298.5) — the equivalent of two months’ salary — on his collection in the late 1990s.
“In Beijing, there’s an alley called Qudeng Hutong,” he said. “To have a better understanding of qudeng, I visited the alley, which was once the major qudeng production and sales area in Beijing. Elderly men still there told me that qudeng equaled matches. But, actually, qudeng is merely tinder, while a match can light a fire.”
Since 1978, 70-year-old Li has collected over 7,000 artifacts from more than 100 countries and regions. In the beginning, he was captivated by the colorful images on the labels of matchboxes, which feature geography, tourist attractions, technology, politics and history.
“The matchboxes are like an encyclopedia,” said Li. “I immersed the matchboxes in water and then used a tweezer to remove the labels carefully. Drying them, I put the labels into an album.”
Li is not only a collector but also a researcher. In his reading room, piles of file folders, along with tins of matchboxes, are placed on shelves. Li has published over 400 articles in more than 60 newspapers and magazines.
“I hadn’t retired when I began collecting matches, so I was quite busy back then,” he explained. “I used to jot down ideas on my way to work and wrote articles during two- or three-hour conferences. Perhaps, my bosses thought I was taking notes.”
According to Li, the first successful friction match was invented by John Walker, a British chemist, in 1826. However, the strike-anywhere matches weren’t very safe.
The Lundström brothers from Sweden improved the product and introduced the safety match in 1855. Just like those we use today, the matchboxes were designed with a striking surface containing red phosphorus. The safety matches could be struck only against the special surface.
During the reign of Emperor Daoguang (1782-1850) in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the exotic matches first entered China. They were sent as a gift to the emperor and soon became popular among the aristocracy. Many foreign firms made enormous profits from selling the matches.
In 1930, Liu Hongsheng, known as the “King of Matches,” founded the Greater China Match Co. As one of China’s most prominent businessmen, Liu also invested in the manufacture of cement, coal and wool textiles. The China Industrial Bank building on Sichuan Road M. was built by him.
“I admire Liu very much for his patriotism and superb talent for business,” Li said. “There are three highlights of my collection. One of them are the matches produced by Liu’s company. The products were displayed in the Chicago World’s Fair in 1933.”
Matchboxes were often printed with the figure of a beautiful woman. According to Li, the image was of popular Chinese actress Lu Meiyu. The advertisement was first posted on the cigarette packs of Shanghai’s famous Meili brand.
Considering that smokers needed matches to light cigarettes, Liu was clever enough to do a deal with the boss of the cigarette company about joint launch of the matches, which enlarged the popularity of Liu’s company.
“Another highlight of my collection is a ship model made from more than 100,000 matches.” Li said. “I spent three years making it. I worked at the Shanghai International Port Co and saw ships every day. Therefore, the model is a combination of my job and my hobby.”
In Li’s “flammable” world, there are many unusual matches: windproof and waterproof matches; matches that can create 2,000-degree-Celsius flame and are used in welding rail; matches with heads covered in Chinese medicinal herbs.
Li once gave a long-stem fireplace match to a friend who used the single matchstick to light all 80 candles at the 80th birthday party of his mother-in-law. All the people present were amazed by the match’s burn longevity.
“I feel extremely happy when I am immersed in research,” said Li. “Through matches, people can see the development of technology, the patriotism of Chinese businessmen and the rise of a national industry in China.”