Today we are so accustomed not only to common matches, but to cigarette lighters both in our pockets and in our vehicles — and sophisticated gas cartridge barbecue lighters — that it's hard for us to imagine how people lit fires or candles without them. Of course, we've all heard of twirling a stick on a stone to strike a spark (hard-core wilderness students learn this technique), but what did the common folk do before the invention of matches?

The prevalent method was repeatedly striking steel against flint (a hard shale rock). Every home had a tinderbox, containing a steel striker, some flint, and tinder — a cotton rag, straw, or wood.

It took approximately 3 minutes to strike a light using the tinderbox method. This was not a job for the impatient. And if the tinder was damp, it took much longer. Sometimes, in wet weather — common in England — it wouldn't strike at all. One can imagine the frustration on a cold morning!

The invention of sulfur matches was a great boon, and getting the tinder to light became a much easier job. The moment a spark hit the tinder, it was used to ignite the sulfur match. Later on, the discovery of sulfur matches that could be ignited by friction — the kind of matches we still use today — caused the old tinderbox to become outmoded.