Matchstick Museum
The Matchstick Museum ( Swedish : Tändsticksmuseet ) is a museum in Jönköping in Sweden. The museum shows how matches are made and their history.
History and location
From the middle of the 19th century matches or matches were used to light fires . It was Carl Frans Lundström (1823–1917), a businessman and economist who, with his brother Johan Edvard (1815–1888), began in 1845 to produce matches with around 30 workers in a shoemaker's workshop. Johan was a chemist and technician trained at Uppsala University. The production facility quickly became too small, in 1848 a new building was built on the shores of Lake Vättern , which is now the Match Museum. The building housed the first match factory in Jönköping and, according to the company, is the only museum of its kind in the world.
This is where the phosphorus matches, invented in 1830, were first made, which contained the highly flammable and poisonous white phosphorus . The Swedish chemist Gustaf Erik Pasch invented the safety matches with red phosphorus as early as 1844 . The Lundström brothers improved the safety matches in such a way that these safety matches were recognized at the 1855 World's Fair .
The revolutionary idea was the machine production of the matches, which made possible a price that was affordable for everyone. And that in times when there was still no electricity and no electric light for heating and lighting and therefore wood fires had to be lit.
The workers and the match industry
Matches were made in Jönköping for 127 years. The different work processes in these years are shown in the museum. In the beginning, the production was entirely manual work. The sticks were planed from aspen wood and dipped in bundles into the primer with white phosphorus. This wood was u. a. able to accept treatment that stopped the match from afterglow when extinguished. In addition, aspen wood soaks up the phosphorus better than other woods. From 1870 machines were gradually introduced, most of which were developed by the ingenious mechanical engineer and engineer Alexander Lagermann . In 1892, for example, he manufactured a complete machine that produced 40,000 boxes of matches a day. As a result, wages fell and many employees were laid off. There are several machines for making matches in the museum.
The workers lived in the houses of the factory when all the family members capable of work were employed in the factory. Children worked from the age of 10 and glued boxes together or they dipped the matches into the ignition compound.
In the museum, the history of industrialism is shown very clearly, also in a film, using the example of this factory .
Boxes
A large part of the museum is taken up by the boxes and labels for the matches. In the beginning, a Swedish text was printed on the boxes, and as exports grew, pictures were designed for the boxes. But fakes are also shown. Factory buildings were called "Jönköping" or "Sweden" so that "Made in Jönköping" or "Made in Sweden" could be written on the boxes.
Lena Törnqvist, a worker
The life of the worker Lena Törnqvist (1818–1898) is shown in the museum . Women and children made up the majority of the workforce, as they received significantly less wages than men. The daily working hours were 11 to 12 hours on six days of the week. However, only ⅔ to ⅓ of the basic wage for men were paid for this. Many workers became ill with phosphorus necrosis from the toxic phosphorus. Lena Törnqvist was also ill with it. Her husband, the miller Johannes, fell victim to cholera in Jönköping. Only three of her six children survived infancy. Lena Törnqvist started to work in the factory, where after a while her gums became infected and teeth fell out. The jawbone also became brittle, so parts of it had to be removed. She then continued her work as home work. The factory provided the material for making the matchboxes and collected the finished boxes. After the count, the wages were paid. Despite the health problems, Lena lived to be 80 years old, and funeral expenses were paid for with her possessions. There was nothing left. Of her three remaining sons, one continued to work in the match factory, the second started work in the Munksjö pappersbruk paper mill, and the youngest emigrated to America. There is a photo of Lena that she had taken for the last named son, which shows her with a headscarf tied tightly around the destroyed jawline, with clear signs of a hard working life, serious illness and great sadness.
Bernhard Hay, leading figure and benefactor, is different
In one room of the museum, the life of Bernhard Hay (born January 7, 1835 in Hayska huset, Varberg , Sweden, † March 14, 1917) is shown. He joined the company in 1853 at the age of 17 and became operations manager in 1863. Bernhard Hay had a major impact on the company. The match industry developed into a large company . The operating area of the plant grew from 1859 with 4,750 m² over 119,000 m² in 1882 to 152,300 m² in 1894.
Bernhard Hay organized a plant fire brigade for the plant , which also went out to deal with fires in Jönköping. He also built a riding hall from 1878–79 and took over the cost of a tennis hall .
In the residence of the rich Hay, festivals were often held with suppers and bazaars , which brought in large sums of money that benefited the poor.
Alexander Lagerman
The name of the engineer and inventor Alexander Lagerman (* 1836 in Eneby near Norrköping , † 1904) is closely connected to the development of the match factory . Lagerman was hired by the match factory in 1870 to modernize production. He developed machines that made the individual production steps more efficient. However, this led to unemployment and lower wages. In 1892 Lagermann presented his revolutionary complete machine, which was able to produce around 40,000 matchboxes per day. The five such machines replaced 200 workers. Thanks to Lagerman’s inventions, the match factory in Jönköping was able to extend its lead over the competition that made the company Sweden’s leading match industry.
Ivar Kreuger, the match king
In the museum, parts from the life of the "match king" Ivar Kreuger (born March 2, 1880 in Kalmar , Sweden; † March 12, 1932 in Paris) up to his suicide are shown .
Worth knowing
Other matchstick museums are located in Bystrzyca Kłodzka , Poland and in Tomar , Portugal .
gallery
- Pictures from the museum
Matchboxes in the museum
Machine for the production of matches
Machine for making match blanks from peeled veneer
Picture from the early history of matchmaking: child is crying because of the cold, grandpa is coughing in bed with pneumonia
Image from the early history of matchmaking: children glue the boxes together
literature
- The Matchstick Museum, a publication of the Matchstick Museum
- Walter Loewe, Arne Jansson, Carl Magnus Rosell: From Swedish Matches to Swedish Match. The Swedish Match Industry 1836-1996. Wahlström & Widstrand, 1997, ISBN 91-46-17290-4
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Information brochure of the Match Museum, ed. Jönköpings Commun
Coordinates: 57 ° 47 '4.6 " N , 14 ° 9" 33.5 " E