History of Matchstick Puzzles
Matches became an everyday thing in the 19th century and soon a puzzle material: Professor Hoffmann's book Puzzles Old and New (1893) already has a chapter of puzzles with matches.
From the friction match to the safety match
The first friction matches were made by the English chemist John Walker in 1826; he never patented them. Early friction matches were still dangerous to use. The safety match, which lights only on the striking surface of its box, came from Sweden: Gustaf Pasch suggested a separate striking surface in 1844, and Johan Edvard Lundström patented the safety match in 1855 and made it in large numbers in Jönköping.
Matches as a puzzle
Cheap and found in every household, matches soon became puzzle material. Professor Hoffmann - the pen name of Angelo John Lewis - gave them a whole chapter, "Puzzles with Lucifer Matches", in his book Puzzles Old and New, published in London in 1893. Sums in the style of a digital clock are a younger form, from the time when such displays became common. The 90 puzzles here were found by computer for PaperGames.