Gustaf Erik Pasch (born Berggren) (3 September 1788 – 6 September 1862) was a Swedish inventor and

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

of chemistry at

Karolinska institute The Karolinska Institute (KI; ; sometimes known as the (Royal) Caroline Institute in English) is a research-led medical university in Solna within the Stockholm urban area of Sweden and one of the foremost medical research institutes globally ...

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

and inventor of the

safety match A match is a tool for starting a fire. Typically, matches are made of small wooden sticks or stiff paper. One end is coated with a material that can be ignited by friction generated by striking the match against a suitable surface. Wooden matc ...

. He was born in

Norrköping Norrköping ( , ) is a city in the province of Östergötland in eastern Sweden and the seat of Norrköping Municipality, Östergötland County, about 160 km southwest of the national capital Stockholm, 40 km east of county seat Lin ...

, the son of a

carpenter Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. Carpenter ...

. He enrolled at

Uppsala University Uppsala University (UU) () is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. Initially fou ...

in 1806 and graduated with a master's degree in 1821. Pasch is mostly known for the safety match, but he was also involved with making waterproof concrete for the

Göta Canal The Göta Canal () is a Swedish canal constructed in the early 19th century. The canal is long, of which were dug or blasted, with a width varying between and a maximum depth of about .Uno Svedin, Britt Hägerhäll Aniansson, ''Sustainab ...

, manufacture of bank notes and growing of silk worms. He married Augusta Fredrika Vilhelmina Berg in 1827. In 1827, he was elected a member of the

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences () is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special responsibility for promoting nat ...

Safety matches

Jöns Jacob Berzelius Baron Jöns Jacob Berzelius (; 20 August 1779 – 7 August 1848) was a Swedish chemist. Berzelius is considered, along with Robert Boyle, John Dalton, and Antoine Lavoisier, to be one of the founders of modern chemistry. Berzelius became a memb ...

, who invented the modern chemical notation, discovered that the dangerous

white phosphorus White phosphorus, yellow phosphorus, or simply tetraphosphorus (P4) is an allotrope of phosphorus. It is a translucent waxy solid that quickly yellows in light (due to its photochemical conversion into red phosphorus), and impure white phospho ...

in matches could be replaced with the more benign

red phosphorus Red phosphorus is an Allotropes of phosphorus, allotrope of phosphorus. It is an amorphous polymeric red solid that is stable in air. It can be easily converted from white phosphorus under light or heating. It finds applications as matches and fir ...

, but was not able to produce a match reliable enough for everyday use. Pasch, a student of Berzelius, managed to do so by moving the phosphorus from the head of the match to a specially prepared striking surface. Pasch was granted a patent on the safety match in 1844. Manufacturing was started at ''"J.S. Bagge & co:s Kemiska fabrik"'' (J.S. Bagge & Company's Chemical Factory) in Stockholm, but ran into difficulties due to the quality of the striking surface. Another problem was that the production of red phosphorus was prohibitively expensive making the final matches very expensive.Gustaf Pasch
/ref> Because of this, Pasch was unable to commercially exploit his invention and production soon ceased. It was not until John Edvard Lundström and his younger brother Carl Frans, who took the Pasch design and improved on it that the safety match became commercially successful a decade later, around 1855–60. Lundström's safety match got an award at the 1855 World Fair in Paris.

Later life

Pasch died without getting rich from the invention that would be the fuel of the Kreuger empire. He was however successful in his role as professor and a member of many prominent societies. From 1846 to 1861, Pasch published the annuals of the Swedish silkgrower society. From 1827 to his death he was the secretary of ''"Kungliga Patriotiska sällskapet"'' (The Royal Patriot Society).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pasch, Gustaf Erik Swedish chemists 19th-century Swedish inventors Uppsala University alumni Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences 1788 births 1862 deaths People from Norrköping Academic staff of the Karolinska Institute