Double Indemnity
What are these matches from a movie?
I recently watched “Double Indemnity” and the main character was able to light matches to smoke a cigar with just the flick of his thumbnail. What kind of matches are they? Also, are they legal now?
Thanks in advance.
From Wikipedia:
There are two main types of matches: safety matches, which can be struck only against a specially prepared surface; and strike-anywhere matches, for which any solid surface can be used.
Strike anywhere matches
Two French chemists, Savene and Cahen, developed a safety match using phosphorus sesquisulfide. They proved that the substance was not poisonous, that it could be used in a “strike anywhere” match and that the match heads were not explosive. They patented a safety match composition in 1898 based on phosphorus sesquisulfide and potassium chlorate. Albright and Wilson developed a safe means of making commercial quantities of phosphorus sesquisulfide in the United Kingdom in 1899 and started selling it to match makers.
In 1901 Albright and Wilson started making phosphorus sesquisulfide at their Niagara Falls plant for the U.S. market, but American manufacturers continued to use white phosphorus based matches. The Niagara Falls plant stopped making it until 1910, when the United States Congress forbade the shipment of white phosphorus matches in interstate commerce. At the same time the largest producer of matches in the USA granted free use, in the USA, of its phosphorus sesquisulfide safety match patents. In 1913 Albright and Wilson also started making red phosphorus at Niagara Falls. Strike-anywhere matches are classed as dangerous goods, “U.N. 1331, Matches, strike anywhere”; and their carriage is forbidden on both passenger aircraft and cargo-only aircraft.
So, before the regular book matches, they would use this other type, which do make for some dramatic moments as they’re lit with a fingernail/thumbnail or on jeans, shoes or even brick walls. Film noir is filled with these images.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Match
Double Indemnity (Film Noir)
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