The first friction match was invented in 1826. Obviously, matches were a quantum leap in technology for smokers, who before that time used tongs to hold small coals against the tobacco in their pipes, or carried flint and steel, or used "spills," which were shavings of wood specifically used for lighting one's pipe or cigar. So popular were spills that a number of woodworking planes were invented to quickly provide the thin, curling lengths of wood, which were ignited in a fireplace or lamp to transfer flame to one's pipe.

Matches were a game-changer because they provided transportable ignition. As relatively simple lengths of wood with ignitable chemicals on one end, it would seem probable that they preceded lighters, which require gasses and ignition systems, tanks, and precise construction. Strangely, however, the first lighter was invented in 1823, three years before the first friction match.

The First Lighter

That first lighter design was Döbereiner's Lamp, named after its inventor, Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner, who was a German chemist. While not as convenient as a modern-day Bic or pipe lighter, it produced safe, carbon-neutral flame, and was a remarkable advance in technology. Now immediate flame was attainable without the need for maintaining a fire in a fireplace or depending on a lamp from which to transfer flame.

This lighter worked through a reaction of zinc with sulfuric acid, which produced flammable hydrogen that was funneled upward through the neck of a container. As the hydrogen mixed with air and met a platinum sponge, it would heat and ignite into flame. A small match-like piece of wood or a spill was still necessary to transfer the flame, but it was nevertheless a technological leap forward.

Here's a video demonstrating exactly how of the lamp works:

Döbereiner's Lamps were produced for about 75 years but never in large quantities because they were too bulky to carry in a pocket, were not easy to use, and, containing sulfuric acid, were not the safest items to have around, as the subsequent scarcity of household items containing sulfuric acid may indicate, despite its having plenty of household uses. Toilet porcelain, for example, is efficiently and quickly cleaned by sulfuric acid, and clogs in pipes are admirably cleared. However, the fumes of sulfuric acid are corrosive and toxic and flesh is as easily dissolved as grime, so it has not become a standard for under-the-sink spray bottles or wet naps, nor has its cleaning properties been utilized for toothpaste.

Additionally, this lighter, if left for a few days without being used, would accumulate an explosive quantity of hydrogen, requiring that the platinum be covered and the jar vented before use, something one might regret forgetting.

Other Experiments

Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner is more famous for his work with platinum as a catalyst for chemical reactions and his advancement of the Periodic Table of Elements than for his lighter. It was his experimentation with platinum that led to the invention of his lighter, but his work in the early categorizing of elements is perhaps his most impressive contribution to science.

Born in 1780, Döbereiner began an apprenticeship at age 14 with an apothecary, where he spent three years before his five years as a journeyman, after which he married and started a business for manufacturing chemicals and pigments. He spent a few successful years doing that and then found a job teaching chemistry and pharmacy at the University of Jena, earning his doctorate during that period and continuing teaching for 39 years.

Other chemists were impressed when Döbereiner discovered that finely separated platinum would act as a catalyst to ignite hydrogen mixed with air. However, his classification of elements into triads led to the modern Periodic Table. He found a relationship between bromine, chlorine and iodine, with the properties of chlorine falling between those of the others. Other sequences of elements matched that observation; specifically, calcium, strontium, and barium; and sulfur, selenium, and tellurium. In each triad, the combination of the lightest and heaviest atomic weights were nearly identical to the atomic weight of the middle element.

Those findings were interesting, but he couldn't discover enough additional triads to propose a substantial rule of observation. Science had only begun to discover relative atomic masses at that time, but Döbereiner's experiments indicated the importance of atomic masses in arranging the elements. Atomic masses would eventually act as the classification system for the Periodic Table, and Döbereiner was influential in that breakthrough.

It was science that led Döbereiner to demonstrate the practical application of his platinum experiments by inventing the lighter. Arguably, the lighter is the more practical invention. In general, we pipe enthusiasts probably use lighters more often than the Periodic Table. You can't light a pipe with the Periodic Table, but the experiments that promoted that table certainly contributed to the ease with which we today light our pipes.

References:

• History Of Matches
• Johnson Matthey Technology Review
• Life Persona
• The Hindu