The swedish match history
It all started in Småland in southern Sweden.
In 1845 Johan Edvard Lundström and his younger brother,
Carl Francis starteda match factory in Jönköping.
They quickly bought a site close to the lake Vättern and built a
factory which today , after the factory is moved , is adapted to
the Swedish Match Museum.
At first, their production based on the Malmo emigrated Danish
match manufacturer Andreas Rohmells methods, but the two
brothers worked hard and Johan Edvard experimented with
development of matches , especially in relation to the dangerous
white phosphorous.
At the World Exhibition in Paris in 1855 the could for the first
time present the patented safety matches , which naturally
received the medal.
The toxic white ( or yellow ) phosphorus had been replaced by
the non- toxic red ( amorphous ) phosphorus , which was
impregnated in the striking surface on the side of the box .
The head of each stick was made of ingredients that would
create enough friction and combustion to ensure a stable flame.
The matches could be ignited only if the match was striked on
the separate striking surface and thus could no longer risk
ignited by friction , for example in the
pocket.
It was therefore natural that the invention was called safety
matches .
The plant grew explosively and engineer Lagermann began to
invent and fabricate machines for mass production of safety
matches .
Jönköping quickly became known for its high quality and as a
successfully result came a growing number of matchstick
factories in Sweden.
In
Denmark , there were factories, such as
Randers Match Factory , who based their production on the
Swedish method .
In 1876 there were 38 factories in Sweden , which operated at
the same time , and in total , there have been at least 121
different matchstick factories in Sweden.
In the aftermath , there was a series of mergers of factories :
In 1887, Swedish Match Company was formed consisting of:
Lovers
Tändstickfabrik
Ystad
Tändstickfabrik
Wexiö Tändstickfabrik
Frederik
Dahl Tändstickfabrik and
Lindahls
Tändstickfabrik
In 1903 formed Jönköping & Vulcans Tändsticksaktiebolag
consisting of:
Jönköping
Tändstickfabrik
Vulcans
Tändstickfabrik
Jonkoping
Westra Tändstickfabrik
Westerviks
Tändstickfabrik
Uddevalla
Tändsticksfabrik
Anne 's
Tändstickfabrik
Wänerborgs
Tändstickfabrik and
Junebro
Tändstickfabrik
It was at this time especially the company Jönköping and Vulcan
that Gosch factories worked with and Gosch 's director had plans
would be part of a big international match syndicate , if he
could not get Kalmar Tändstickfabrik in the cooperation.
In 1913 formed AB Förenade Svenska Tändstiksfabrikker consisting
of:
Swedish Match Company
Kalmar Tändstickfabrik who had Kreuger familjen as owners
Mönsterås
Tändstickfabrik
Sirius
Tändstickfabrik
Södertälje
Tändstickfabrik
Hvetlanda
Tändstickfabrik and
Svenska AB Tändsticks
For some time there had been fierce competition between
Jonkoping and Vulcan and AB Förenade Svenska Tändstickfabrikker
and the Kreuger family with Ivar Kreuger as strategist quietly
isolated its competitor by buying their suppliers and thus
forced them " surrender
" .
A fight that happened while Gosch 's director Folmer Preisler
tried to form his syndicate , but without knowing it had been
overtaken by Kreuger .
In 1917 came as the inevitable merging of Svenska Tändsticks
Aktiebolaget ( STAB ), consisting of the two companies Jonkoping
& Vulcans Tändsticksaktiebolag and AB Förenade Svenska
Tändsticksfabrikker .
STAB grew under Kreugers leadership to a huge group or
matchstick trust, as it was called , with a monopoly on selling
matches in 17 countries and factories throughout Europe and in
17 non-European countries .
After Kreugers death
12
March 1932, the factories was taken over by others, especially
Americans, but a very large part was taken over by the Swedish
Wallenberg family and today is still the leading manufacturer of
matches in the world.
