Burning Matches Art

In the United States, the Diamond Match Company obtained the patent for sesquisulfide manufacture in 1900 for a sum of $100,000. In 1901 Albright and Wilson started making phosphorus sesquisulfide at their Niagara Falls, New York plant for the U.S. market, but American manufacturers continued to use white phosphorus matches. The Niagara Falls plant made them until 1910, when the United States Congress forbade the shipment of white phosphorus matches in interstate commerce. At the same time the largest producer of matches in the USA granted free use, in the USA, of its phosphorus sesquisulfide safety match patents. President William Howard Taft of the US then wrote publicly to the Diamond Match Company asking them to release the patent for the good of mankind, which they did in 1911. In 1913 Albright and Wilson also started making red phosphorus at Niagara Falls.
• The strike-anywhere match
Early friction matches made with white phosphorus as well as those made from phosphorus sesquisulfide could be struck on any suitable surface. They were particularly popular in the United States even when safety matches had become common in Europe. Strike-anywhere matches are classified as dangerous goods, "U.N. 1331, Matches, strike-anywhere;" and their carriage is illegal on both passenger aircraft and cargo-only aircraft.