Unless you've been shipwrecked or you're an extremely ill-prepared camper, you've probably never had to make a fire without a device for instant ignition. But 200 years ago it was a whole different story: Those in need of warmth, light or a cooking flame had to nurse embers from fire to fire or coax sparks from a flint and hope the tinder caught. An English chemist and druggist named John Walker changed all that with his invention of "Sulphurata Hyperoxygenata Fricts," the ancestors of today's everyday match.

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