John Walker, a chemist and apothecary in Stockton on Tees, England, discovered through lucky accident that if he coated the end of a stick with certain chemicals and let them dry, he could start a fire by striking the stick anywhere. These were the first friction matches. The chemicals he used were antimony sulfide, potassium chlorate, gum, and starch.
The price of a box of 50 matches was one shilling. With each box was supplied a piece of sandpaper, folded double, through which the match had to be drawn to ignite it. He refused to patent his "Congreves" as he called the matches (alluding to the Congreve's rocket invented in 1808).
First sale of the matches was on April 7, 1827.
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blmatch.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Walker_%28inventor%29
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