Safety match

A burning match

A safety match is a small device to make fire safely.

Typically it is a wooden stick (usually sold in match boxes) or stiff paper stick (usually sold in matchbooks) coated at one end with a material, the match head, often containing the element phosphorus, that will ignite from the heat of friction if rubbed ("struck") against a suitable surface.

Matches are sold in tobacconists and other shops. Matches are rarely sold singularly; they are sold in multiples, packaged in either match boxes or in matchbooks.

Other websites

• "History of Chemical Matches". Chemistry.about.com. http://chemistry.about.com/od/everydaychemistry/a/matches.htm. Retrieved November 11, 2005.
• "The History of Matches". Inventors.about.com. http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blmatch.htm. Retrieved November 11, 2005.
• "History of matchbooks". Matchcovers.com/first100.htm. http://www.matchcovers.com/first100.htm. Retrieved January 21, 2006.
• "The Rathkamp Matchcover Society". Matchcover.org. http://www.matchcover.org. Retrieved January 21, 2006.
• A site demonstrating jet propulsion using matches and foil