History of Chemical Matches

If you need to start a fire do you rub sticks together or break out your handy flint? Probably not. Most people would use a lighter or a match to start a fire. Matches allow for a portable, easy-to-use source of fire. Many chemical reactions generate heat and fire, but matches are a fairly recent invention. Matches are also an invention you probably wouldn't choose to duplicate if civilization ended today or you were stranded on a desert island. The chemicals involved in modern matches are generally safe, but that wasn't always the case:

• 1669 [Hennig Brand or Brandt, also known as Dr. Teutonicus]
  Brand was an Hamburg alchemist who discovered phosphorus during his attempts to turn base metals into gold. He allowed a vat of urine to stand until it putrified. He boiled the resulting liquid down to a paste, which he heated to a high temperature, so that the vapors could be drawn into water and condensed into... gold. Brand didn't get gold, but he did obtain a waxy white substance that glowed in the dark. This was phosphorus, one of the first elements to be isolated other than those which exist free in nature. Evaporating urine produced ammonium sodium hydrogenphosphate (microcosmic salt), which yielded sodium phosphite upon heating. When heated with carbon (charcoal) this decomposed into white phosphorus and sodium pyrophosphate:

  (NH₄)NaHPO₄ —› NaPO₃ + NH₃ + H₂O

  8NaPO₃ + 10C —› 2Na₄P₂O₇ + 10CO + P₄

  Although Brand tried to keep his process a secret, he sold his discovery to a German chemist, Krafft, who exhibited phosphorus throughout Europe. Word leaked out that the substance was made from urine, which was all Kunckel and Boyle needed to work out their own means of purifying phosphorus.

• 1678 [Johann Kunckel]
  Successfully made phosphorus from urine.
  

• 1680 [Robert Boyle]
  Boyle coated a piece of paper with phosphorus, with a separate splinter of sulfur-coated wood. When the wood was drawn through the paper, it would burst into flame. Phosphorus was difficult to obtain at that time, so the invention was only a curiosity. Boyle's method of isolating phosphorus was more efficient than Brand's:

  4NaPO₃ + 2SiO₂ + 10C —› 2Na₂SiO₃ + 10CO + P₄

• 1826/1827 [John Walker, Samuel Jones]
  Walker serendipitously discovered a friction match made from antimony sulfide, potassium chlorate, gum, and starch, resulting from a dried blob on the end of a stick used to stir a chemical mixture. He didn't patent his discovery, though he did show it to people. Samuel Jones saw the demonstration and started to produce 'Lucifers', which were matches marketed to the Southern and Western U.S. states. Lucifers reportedly could ignite explosively, sometimes throwing sparks at a considerable distance. They were known to have a strong 'firework' odor.

• 1830 [Charles Sauria]
  Sauria reformulated the match using white phosphorus, which eliminated the strong odor. However, the phosphorus was deadly. Many people developed a disorder known as 'phossy jaw'. Children who sucked on matches developed skeletal deformities. Phosphorus factory workers got bones diseases. One pack of matches contained enough phosphorus to kill a person.

• 1892 [Joshua Pusey]
  Pusey invented the matchbook, however, he placed the striking surface on the inside of the book so that all 50 matches would ignite at once. The Diamond Match Company later purchased Pusey's patent and moved the striking surface to the exterior of the packaging.

• 1910 [Diamond Match Company]
  With a worldwide push to ban the use of white phosphorus matches, the Diamond Match Company got a patent for a non-poisonous match which used sesquisulfide of phophorous. U.S. President Taft requested that Diamond Match give up their patent.

• 1911 [Diamond Match Company]
  Diamond yielded their patent on January 28, 1911. Congress passed a law placing a prohibitively high tax on white phosphorus matches.

• Present Day
  Butane lighters have largely replaced matches in many part of the world, however matches are still made and used. The Diamond Match Company, for example, makes more than 12 billion matches a year. Approximately 500 billion matches are used annually in the United States.

Importance of Chemistry

Chemistry has a reputation for being a complicated and boring science, but for the most part, that reputation is undeserved. Fireworks and explosions are based on chemistry, so it's definitely not a boring science. If you take classes in chemistry, you'll apply math and logic, which can make studying chemistry a challenge if you are weak in those areas. However, anyone can understand the basics of how things work... and that's the study of chemistry. In a nutshell, the importance of chemistry is that it explains the world around you.

Chemistry Explains...

• Cooking
  Chemistry explains how food changes as you cook it, how it rots, how to preserve food, how your body uses the food you eat, and how ingredients interact to make food.

• Cleaning
  Part of the importance of chemistry is it explains how cleaning works. You use chemistry to help decide what cleaner is best for dishes, laundry, yourself, and your home. You use chemistry when you use bleaches and disinfectants and even ordinary soap and water. How do they work? That's chemistry!

• Medicine
  You need to understand basic chemistry so you can understand how vitamins, supplements, and drugs can help or harm you. Part of the importance of chemistry lies in developing and testing new medical treatments and medicines.

• Environmental Issues
  Chemistry is at the heart of environmental issues. What makes one chemical a nutrient and another chemical a pollutant? How can you clean up the environment? What processes can produce the things you need without harming the environment?

We're all chemists. We use chemicals every day and perform chemical reactions without thinking much about them. Chemistry is important because everything you do is chemistry! Even your body is made of chemicals. Chemical reactions occur when you breathe, eat, or just sit there reading. All matter is made of chemicals, so the importance of chemistry is that it's the study of everything.

Importance of Taking Chemistry

Everyone can and should understand basic chemistry, but it may be important to take a course in chemistry or even make a career out of it. It's important to understand chemistry if you are studying any of the sciences because all of the sciences involve matter and the interactions between types of matter. Students wanting to become doctors, nurses, physicists, nutritionists, geologists, pharmacists, and (of course) chemists all study chemistry. You might want to make a career of chemistry because chemistry-related jobs are plentiful and high-paying. The importance of chemistry won't be diminished over time, so it will remain a promising career path.

Buy a Chemistry Textbook

You've gotten the list of textbooks for your course. Before you sell your soul to the bookstore, find out which texts you really need and which ones to skip. Ask yourself these important questions:

Will you keep the book?

Thumb through the book and ask yourself whether or not you think the book will serve as a handy reference after the course is concluded. If yes, buy it, preferably new. If not, keep reading...

Does the course actually use the text?

Words to the wise: A book might be listed as 'required', but that doesn't necessarily mean you have to buy it! Some required texts really don't get used (ask upperclassmen) or can be borrowed. If you don't plan on keeping the book after the class, consider buying a 'used' copy. When in doubt, wait until the first day of class to make a decision.

Is this a lab book?

Laboratory workbooks need to be purchased and they need to be new. Don't try to sneak in a used laboratory book. Your instructor will not be amused.

Is the text available used?

Really popular texts are usually available in 'used' form. However, the text is probably popular because it is useful! If you need a book and will use it after the course ends, buy it new. If you are strapped for cash or the usefulness of the book is questionable, buy it used.

Will the book help you?

Sometimes a book is recommended, but not required. This is true for many study guides. Ask yourself whether or not you will benefit from using the book. Can the book be borrowed? Is it useful enough to buy, new or used? When in doubt, talk with your instructor.

Can I afford it?

Although this is a good question to raise regarding buying books, it is NOT a question to ask when deciding whether or not to obtain a book. The difference? Buying a book involves money. Obtaining a book might involve money, but it also could include borrowing from a student or professor. I don't recommend sharing important books. If you need a book, then get it!

Chemistry Laboratory Safety Rules

ome rules are NOT made to be broken. That is true of the rules used in a chemistry lab. They are really, truly for your safety and not your humiliation.

• Do Not Pipette By Mouth - Ever
  You say, "But it's only water." Even if it is, how clean do you think that glassware really is? Using disposable pipettes? I know lots of people who rinse them and put them back! Learn to use the pipette bulb or automated pipetter. Don't pipette by mouth at home either. Gasoline and kerosene should be obvious, but people get hospitalized or die every year, right? I know someone who used his mouth to start the suction on a waterbed to drain it. Do you know what they put in some waterbed additives? Carbon-14. Mmmm...radiation. He couldn't retch fast enough! The lesson is that even seemingly harmless substances may be dangerous!

• Read the Chemical Safety Information
  A Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) should be available for every chemical you use in lab. Read these and follow the recommendations for safe use and disposal of the material.

• Dress Appropriately (for chemistry lab, not fashion or the weather)
  No sandals, no clothes you love more than life, no contact lenses, and long pants are preferable to shorts or short skirts. Tie long hair back. Wear safety goggles and a lab coat. Even if you aren't clumsy, someone else in the lab probably is. If you take even a few chemistry courses you will probably see people set themselves on fire, spill acid on themselves, others, or notes, splash themselves in the eye, etc. Don't be the bad example to others, remembered for all time for something stupid!

• Identify the Safety Equipment
  And know how to use it! Given that some people (possibly you) will need them, know the locations of the fire blanket, extinguishers, eyewash, and shower. Ask for demonstrations! If the eyewash hasn't been used in a while the discoloration of the water is usually sufficient to inspire use of safety glasses.

• Don't Taste or Sniff Chemicals
  For many chemicals, if you can smell them then you are exposing yourself to a dose that can harm you! If the safety information says that a chemical should only be used inside a fume hood, then don't use it anywhere else. This isn't cooking class - don't taste your experiments!

• Don't Casually Dispose of Chemicals Down the Drain
  Some chemicals can be washed down the drain, while others require a different method of disposal. If a chemical can go in the sink, be sure to wash it away rather than risk an unexpected reaction between chemical 'leftovers' later.
• Don't Eat or Drink in Lab
  It's tempting, but oh so dangerous... just don't do it!

• Don't Play Mad Scientist
  Don't haphazardly mix chemicals! Pay attention to the order in which chemicals are to be added to each other and do not deviate from the instructions. Even chemicals that mix to produce seemingly safe products should be handled carefully. For example, hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide will give you salt water, but the reaction could break your glassware or splash the reactants onto you if you aren't careful!

• Take Data During Lab
  Not after lab, on the assumption that it will be neater. Put data directly in your lab book rather than transcribing from another source (e.g., notebook or lab partner). There are lots of reasons for this, but the practical one is that it is much harder for the data to get lost in your lab book. For some experiments, it may be helpful to take data beforelab. No, I'm not telling you to dry-lab or cheat, but being able to project likely data will help you catch bad lab procedure before you are three hours or so into a project. Know what to expect. You should always read the experiment in advance.

Ways to Fail a Chemistry Class

Avoid these mistakes to help ensure success in your chemistry class.

1. Don't Show Up

Possibly one of the easiest ways to ensure failure is to not attend class. It's possible to teach yourself chemistry without ever setting foot in a classroom, but learning a subject isn't the same as passing a class. If you don't put in the time, you probably won't know what is expected of you for exams. You won't know what problem sets are due. You can't do labs if you aren't there. Even if there isn't an attendance policy, it helps to put in face-time.

2. Don't Practice Problems

Some of chemistry is understanding how things work. Some of it is outright memorization. Most of chemistry is learning how to set up and balance equations and work various types of problems. The best way to master these skills is to practice. The worst thing you can do is just copy another student's work or the answers from the back of the book. Do your work. Show your work. Practice different types of problems (often).

3. Don't Read the Text

... or the handouts or the lab manual. Reading conveys concepts. If you don't read, you don't need to worry about learning that pesky information. That said, it probably is more important to give special weight to whatever the instructor emphasizes in lecture. Don't ignore reading assignments, however. For chemistry, it's better to read the text before the lecture. If the lecture makes no sense, you need more preparation before class, which involves time with your textbook.

Reasons Why Students Fail Chemistry

Are you taking a chemistry class? Are you worried you might not pass? Chemistry is a subject many students prefer to avoid, even if they have an interest in science, because of its reputation for lowering grade point averages. However, it isn't as bad as it seems, especially if you avoid these common mistakes.

1. Procrastinating

Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow, right? Wrong! The first few days in a chemistry class may be very easy and could lull you into a false sense of security. Don't put off doing homework or studying until halfway through the class. Mastering chemistry requires you to build concept upon concept. If you miss the basics, you'll get yourself into trouble. Pace yourself. Set aside a small segment of time each day for chemistry. It will help you to gain long-term mastery. Don't cram.

2. Insufficient Math Preparation

Don't go into chemistry until you understand the basics of algebra. Geometry helps, too. You will need to be able to perform unit conversions. Expect to work chemistry problems on a daily basis. Don't rely too much on a calculator. Chemistry and physics use math as an essential tool.

3. Not Getting or Reading the Text

Yes, there are classes in which the text is optional or completely useless. This isn't one of those classes. Get the text. Read it! Ditto for any required lab manuals. Even if the lectures are fantastic, you'll need the book for the homework assignments. A study guide may be of limited use, but the basic text is a must-have.

4. Psyching Yourself Out

I think I can, I think I can... you have to have a positive attitude toward chemistry. If you truly believe you will fail you may be setting yourself up for a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you have prepared yourself for the class, you have to believe that you can be successful. Also, it's easier to study a topic you like than one you hate. Don't hate chemistry. Make your peace with it and master it.

5. Not Doing Your Own Work

Study guides and books with worked answers in the back are great, right? Yes, but only if you use them for help and not as an easy way to get your homework done. Don't let a book or classmates do your work for you. They won't be available during the tests, which will count for a big portion of your grade.

Help you Succeed in Chemistry

There is no 'magic formula' for learning chemistry. Basically it involves not getting behind, doing your own work, and not psyching yourself out:

• Don't procrastinate!
  Cramming does not equal learning. Yes, yes, I am a hypocrite... the queen of putting-off-until-tomorrow. Take it from someone with experience: if you wait until the night before a test to start studying you will suffer, your grades will suffer, etc.

• Don't Procrastinate
  It's worth repeating! In chemistry you build from one concept onto the next. You need a solid knowledge base to progress.

• Try Flash Cards
  Hey, they are used in elementary and primary school because FLASHCARDS WORK. Some of the information gets learned while making the cards and the rest can be learned during practice. You get to switch around the order in which you view topics, which is something most notebooks don't provide. Get some index cards and give it a try!

• Try a Highlighter
  Use it judiciously. The goal is not to turn your book or notes fluorescent. Most texts already have important concepts in bold typeface. Unless your teacher is very unusual, he or she will almost always mention likely test questions, answers, and concepts. Highlight them! Some teachers take questions from a test bank, but those who write their own are usually keeping a mental tally of concepts while teaching.

• Make Mnemonic Devices
  What you are doing here is taking the first letters of words in a sequence you are trying to memorize and making a phrase from them to serve as a memory aid. Example: the sequence of the first few elements in the periodic table H, He, Li, Be, B, C, N, O, F, Ne could be (well, the one that came to my mind was actually dirty, which is easier to remember) Hi Henry, Lookin' Big, Bad, Certainly Nasty, Old Friend - Not! Ok, it isn't great literature. One popular mnemonic device is for metric prefixes: Kilo- Hecto- Deca- Meter (liter, gram) deci- centi- milli- Kangaroos Hopping Down Mountains Drinking Chocolate Milk. Also, such phrases are even easier to memorize if you put them to music.

• Know Your Text
  Do you have a glossary? Answers to problems in the back? Self-quizzes? Appendices full of useful information? Find that out sooner rather than later. Use the glossary. You can't communicate about a subject without learning the terminology.

Write a Lab Report

Lab reports are an essential part of all laboratory courses and usually a significant part of your grade. If your instructor gives you an outline for how to write a lab report, use that. Here's a format for a lab report you can use if you aren't sure what to write or need an explanation of what to include in the different parts of the report. A lab report is how you explain what you did in experiment, what you learned, and what the results meant. Here is a standard format:

1. Title Page
   Not all lab reports have title pages, but if your instructor wants one, it would be a single page that states:
   • The title of the experiment.
   • Your name and the names of any lab partners.
   • Your instructor's name.
   • The date the lab was performed or the date the report was submitted.

2. Title
   The title says what you did. It should be brief (aim for ten words or less) and describe the main point of the experiment or investigation. An example of a title would be: "Effects of Ultraviolet Light on Borax Crystal Growth Rate". If you can, begin your title using a keyword rather than an article like 'The' or 'A'.

3. Introduction / Purpose
   Usually the Introduction is one paragraph that explains the objectives or purpose of the lab. In one sentence, state the hypothesis. Sometimes an introduction may contain background information, briefly summarize how the experiment was performed, state the findings of the experiment, and list the conclusions of the investigation. Even if you don't write a whole introduction, you need to state the purpose of the experiment, or why you did it. This would be where you state your hypothesis.

4. Materials
   List everything needed to complete your experiment.

5. Methods
   Describe the steps you completed during your investigation. This is your procedure. Be sufficiently detailed that anyone could read this section and duplicate your experiment. Write it as if you were giving direction for someone else to do the lab. It may be helpful to provide a Figure to diagram your experimental setup.

6. Data
   Numerical data obtained from your procedure usually is presented as a table. Data encompasses what you recorded when you conducted the experiment. It's just the facts, not any interpretation of what they mean.

7. Results
   Describe in words what the data means. Sometimes the Results section is combined with the Discussion (Results & Discussion).

8. Discussion or Analysis
   The Data section contains numbers. The Analysis section contains any calculations you made based on those numbers. This is where you interpret the data and determine whether or not a hypothesis was accepted. This is also where you would discuss any mistakes you might have made while conducting the investigation. You may wish to describe ways the study might have been improved.

9. Conclusions
   Most of the time the conclusion is a single paragraph that sums up what happened in the experiment, whether your hypothesis was accepted or rejected, and what this means.

10. Figures & Graphs
    Graphs and figures must both be labeled with a descriptive title. Label the axes on a graph, being sure to include units of measurement. The independent variable is on the X-axis. The dependent variable (the one you are measuring) is on the Y-axis. Be sure to refer to figures and graphs in the text of your report. The first figure is Figure 1, the second figure is Figure 2, etc.

11. References
    If your research was based on someone else's work or if you cited facts that require documentation, then you should list these references.