John Edvard Lundström

John Edvard Lundström (1815-1888) was the Swedish inventor of the improved safety match. John is also known as Johan. Johan was born in 1815 in the town of Jönköping, Sweden. He studied at the university there and worked at a local newspaper company with his younger brother, Carl Frans. Johan’s great mind, and Carl’s business skills were a perfect match for success. They soon bought a place to work in, and then bought an estate on the coast of Lake Vättern where they built their factory. Today, their factory is a museum. They worked hard and got more popular and more successful. In 1844, the chemistry professor Gustaf Erik Pasch, invented the safety match. Before this time, matches were very dangerous because on them they had very poisonous yellow phosphorus. People would get infected from the poisonous phosphorus and get a disease called “Phossy jaw”. This disease was very deadly. Now, the safety match used red phosphorus and it was placed on the striking surface, not the match itself. The reason they were called “safety matches” was because, they would only ignite on the striking surface on the box, nowhere else would the match ignite. Johan improved and perfected this match so that it would be able to be used safely. After Johan perfected it, the match got an award at the “World Exhibition” in Paris, France. Because of the match’s safety, it became an instant and great success. Today it is the most widely used match in the world. Lundstrom died in 1888 at the age of 73.