Consumer Electronics

In 1831, Charles Sauria of France developed a match that used white phosphorus. These matches were strike-anywhere matches and were much easier to ignite. Unfortunately, they were too easy to ignite and caused many unintentional fires. White phosphorus also proved to be highly toxic. Workers in match plants who inhaled white phosphorus fumes often suffered from a horrible degeneration of the jawbones known as "phossy jaw." Despite this health hazard, white phosphorus continued to be used in strike-anywhere matches until the early 1900s, when government action in the United States and Europe forced manufacturers to switch to a nontoxic chemical.

In 1844 Gustaf Pasch of Sweden proposed placing some of the match's combustion ingredients on a separate striking surface, rather than incorporating them all into the match head, as an extra precaution against accidental ignition. This idea-coupled with the discovery of less-reactive, nontoxic red phosphorus-led J. E. Lundstrom of Sweden to introduce safety matches in 1855. Although safety matches posed less of a hazard, many people still preferred the convenience of strike-anywhere matches, and both types continue to be used today.

The first matchbook matches were patented in the United States by Joshua Pussey in 1892. The Diamond Match Company purchased the rights to this patent in 1894. At first, these new matches were not well accepted, but when a brewing company bought 10 million matchbooks to advertise their product, sales soared.

Early match manufacturing was mainly a manual operation. Mechanization slowly took over portions of the operation until the first automatic match machine was patented by Ebenezer Beecher in 1888. Modern match manufacturing is a highly automated process using continuous-operation machines that can produce as many as 10 million matches in an eight-hour shift with only a few people to monitor the operation.

Once the matchsticks are formed, they are soaked in ammonium phosphate, which is a fire retardant. This prevents the stick from smoldering after the match has gone out. During manufacture, the striking ends of the matchsticks are dipped in hot paraffin wax. This provides a small amount of fuel to transfer the flame from the burning chemicals on the tip to the matchstick itself. Once the paraffin burns off, the ammonium phosphate in the matchstick prevents any further combustion.

The heads of strike-anywhere matches are composed of two parts, the tip and the base. The tip contains a mixture of phosphorus sesquisulfide and potassium chlorate. Phosphorus sesquisulfide is a highly reactive, non-toxic chemical used in place of white phosphorus. It is easily ignited by the heat of friction against a rough surface. The potassium chlorate supplies the oxygen needed for combustion. The tip also contains powdered glass and other inert filler material to increase the friction and control the burning rate. Animal glue is used to bind the chemicals together, and a small amount of zinc oxide may be added to the tip to give it a whitish color. The base contains many of the same materials as the tip, but has a smaller amount of phosphorus sesquisulfide. It also contains sulfur, rosin, and a small amount of paraffin wax to sustain combustion. A water-soluble dye may be added to give the base a color such as red or blue.

The heads of safety matches are composed of a single part. They contain antimony trisulfide, potassium chlorate, sulfur, powdered glass, inert fillers, and animal glue. They may also include a water-soluble dye. Antimony trisulfide cannot be ignited by the heat of friction, even in the presence of an oxidizing agent like potassium chlorate, and it requires another source of ignition to start the combustion. That source of ignition comes from the striking surface, which is deposited on the side of the matchbox or on the back cover of the matchbook. The striking surface contains red phosphorus, powdered glass, and an adhesive such as gum Arabic or urea formaldehyde. When a safety match is rubbed against the striking surface, the friction generates enough heat to convert a trace of the red phosphorus into white phosphorus. This immediately reacts with the potassium chlorate in the match head to produce enough heat to ignite the antimony trisulfide and start the combustion.

Match boxes and match books are made from cardboard. The finned strips of cardboard used to make the matches in match books are called a comb.

Here is a typical sequence of operations for manufacturing wooden-stick matches:

• 1 Logs of white pine or aspen are clamped in a debarking machine and slowly rotated while spinning blades cut away the outer bark of the tree.
• 2 The stripped logs are then cut into short lengths about 1.6 ft (0.5 m) long. Each length is placed in a peeler and rotated while a sharp, flat blade peels a long, thin sheet of wood from the outer surface of the log. This sheet is about 0.1 in (2.5 mm) thick and is called a veneer. The peeling blade moves inward toward the core of the rotating log until only a small, round post is left. This post is discarded and may be used for fuel or reduced to wood chips for use in making paper or chipboard.

Stripped logs are placed in a peeler, which cuts a sheet about 0.1 in (2.5 mm) thick, called veneer, from the log. The veneer proceeds to the chopper, which cuts it into small sticks. The sticks are soaked in a dilute solution of ammonium phosphate and dried, removing splinters and crystallized solution. The matches are dumped into a feed hopper, which lines them up. A perforated conveyor belt holds them upside down while they are dipped in a series of three tanks. The matches are dried for 50-60 minutes before they are packaged.

• 3 The sheets of veneer are stacked and fed into a chopper. The chopper has many sharp blades that cut down through the stack to produce as many as 1,000 matchsticks in a single stroke.

• 4 The cut matchsticks are dumped into a large vat filled with a dilute solution of ammonium phosphate.
• 5 After they have soaked for several minutes, the matchsticks are removed from the vat and placed in a large, rotating drum, like a clothes dryer. The tumbling action inside the drum dries the sticks and acts to polish and clean them of any splinters or crystallized chemical.
• 6 The dried sticks are then dumped into a hopper and blown through a metal duct to the storage area. In some operations the sticks are blown directly into the matchmaking facility rather than going to storage.

• 7 The sticks are blown from the storage area to a conveyor belt that transfers them to be inserted into holes on a long, continuous, perforated steel belt. The sticks are dumped into several v-shaped feed hoppers that line them up with the holes in the perforated belt. Plungers push the matchsticks into the holes across the width of the slowly moving belt. A typical belt may have 50-100 holes spaced across its width. Any sticks that do not seat firmly into the holes fall to a catch area beneath the belt and are transferred back to the feed hoppers.
• 8 The perforated belt holds the matchsticks upside down and immerses the lower portion of the sticks in a bath of hot paraffin wax. After they emerge from the wax, the sticks are allowed to dry.
• 9 Further down the line, the matchsticks are positioned over a tray filled with a liquid solution of the match head chemicals. The tray is then momentarily raised to immerse the ends of the sticks in the solution. Several thousand sticks are coated at the same time. This cycle repeats itself when the next batch of sticks is in position. If the matches are the strike-anywhere kind, the sticks move on to another tray filled with a solution of the tip chemicals, and the match ends are immersed in that tray, only this time not quite as deeply. This gives strike-anywhere matches their characteristic two-toned appearance.
• 10 After the match heads are coated, the matches must be dried very slowly or they will not light properly. The belt loops up and down several times as the matches dry for 50-60 minutes.

• 11 The cardboard inner and outer portions of the match boxes are cut, printed, folded, and glued together in a separate area. If the box is to contain safety matches, the chemicals for the striking strip are mixed with an adhesive and are automatically applied to the outer portion of the box.
• 12 When the matches are dry, the belt moves them to the packaging area, where a multi-toothed wheel pushes the finished matches out of the holes in the belt. The matches fall into hoppers, which measure the proper amount of matches for each box. The matches are dumped from the hoppers into the inner portions of the cardboard match boxes, which are moving along a conveyor belt located below the hoppers. Ten or more boxes may be filled at the same time.
• 13 The outer portions of the match boxes move along another conveyor belt running parallel to the first belt. Both conveyors stop momentarily, and the filled inner portions are pushed into the outer portions. This cycle of filling the inner portions and pushing them into the outer portions is repeated at a rate of about once per second.
• 14 The filled match boxes are moved by conveyor belt to a machine, which groups them and places them in a corrugated cardboard box for shipping.

They seem to have different ones for different products. If you want to get through to a person, you have to first enter your product information on their webpage at support.hp.com/us-en/contact-hp.

That said, please be careful when encountering phone numbers online claiming to be HP Technical Support. HP obviously does not advertise these numbers, or even show them to you until you register a product. Although some of the numbers online could be from legitimate businesses, others could be from people who are trying to scam you and install ransomware on your computer (ransomware is software that blocks your access to your own computer unless you pay their price).

To be sure you are reaching real HP support, start out on their page at HP.com.

If you are purchasing a two way radio that operates using GMRS frequencies, and plan to use it withing the United States, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requires that you register for a GMRS license.

Why do I need an FCC license?

In the United States, the FCC regulates the frequencies that are used by devices like two way radios. The FCC requires that anyone operating a device on the General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) obtain a license prior to use.

How do I apply for a GMRS FCC license?

A GMRS license requires that you complete FCC form 159 and form 605. These forms can be found on the FCC forms page.

You can also apply for a GMRS license online at the FCC Universal License System (ULS) web site.

Is there a charge for a GMRS license?

Yes. The FCC currently charges a $75.00 fee for GMRS licenses. Some applications are exempt from this fee.

Do I have to get a license before I can buy a two way radio?

No. We do not require a license before we will ship a two way radio. We are in no way affiliated with the FCC, or the GMRS licensing process.

Do you report to the FCC that I purchased a GMRS radio?

No. We are in no way affiliated with the FCC, or the GMRS licensing process. As is stated in our privacy policy, we will never provide your information to any third party (outside of the immediate billing processes) unless we are ever required to do so by law or to be in compliance with a court order.

Do I have to get a license if I live outside of the United States?

You only need a FCC GMRS license if you are using the GMRS frequencies within the United States.

I am not sure how the total configuration for each station is finally decided. But there is a specific line of demarcation, possibly the Mississippi River, that governs part of this question.

All stations to the east of the line must have a "W" in its call letters (the station's public name) as in WNBC in New York City (NEW YORK CITY???!!!!) and represents a specific frequency on the AM band (Alternating Modulation} or the FM band (Frequency Modulation) over whichever band the station has a license to broadcast from the FCC,

For stations to the west of the line, the regs are the same with the exception that their call letters must contain the letter "K', as in KCBS (San Francisco or Los Angeles). I assume no station can have both. However, the required letter does not have to appear as the first letter. For example, CKLW is a major radio station in Detroit.

[For us old-timers: CKLW is the originating station that first wrote, produced and broadcast the radio series "The Adventure of the Lone Ranger" in the late 1930s. Its popularity caused its eventual national syndication. It ran 3 times a week in the evening until about 1954 when it became a TV series. And yes there was a time before TV! The imagination processes ran wild envisioning the action that was occurring in each show. It held many of us youngsters (youngsters then, at least} spellbound for the entire 30 minutes.]

Although they existed, prior to the 1960s, FM stations were not all that popular (weak broadcasting power and many, if not all, could only broadcast from during daylight hours so not to interfere with the major national stations signal in non-daylight hours. the signals carry much farther at night}.

They really came into prominence in the 60s, incidentally coinciding with the huge popularity that had grown for rock 'n roll music and it counterpart mandatory component, the "disk jockey". Eventually, they were given increased power and allowed to broadcast 24/7. They really did push the AM stations into the background, and rather quickly. This resulted in vacancies on the AM band.

The result allowed smaller local stations with a small radius of listeners to come into existence. This was a positive for small and tiny communities who could now have their own local station dedicated to local needs. These "little guys" could at now have their own local community station, serving local citizens, business and issues. And likely, a greater sense of community pride.

Additionally, it paved the way for special interest groups who wanted a station that had an even more rifled focus such as religious, political or ethnic platforms or focused music. Naturally there was a growth of foreign language stations to accommodate some of these needs. Tangentially, this allowed huge numbers of those whose second language was English, or spoke no English, to hear music, news and discussions in their native language.

Scan your AM dial today and I think that what will be found is mostly news, weather, sports, talk show hosts with call-in questions about topical issues, religious services, religious/spiritual/political discussions or individuals putting forth their own views on just about anything.

I hope this answers your question and likely more than you ever wanted to know about this. But there is no extra charge for the history lesson. I hope you were not bored to death by this.

I believe the first author's discussion of CKLW is incorrect. It begins with a "C" because it is a Canadian-registered station (Windsor, ON, across the river from Detroit, MI. Also, why are there stations east of the Mississippi that start with a "K" (KDKA in Pittsburgh)?