50 Years of Solo Lipnik 1909-1959

From the early part of the 20^th Century until modernisation in 1970, the Solo company operated from this factory, at its peak producing over 7 million Kg of matches in 1925 alone. Our pictures tell the story of production from forest to matchbox.

The cutting and peeling process. Tree trunks, mainly Aspen and Poplar, are cut to length and stripped of their bark, ready for processing.   

Peeling the Membrane. The lengths of trunk are placed on a roller, and as the rotate, are cut to the right thickness.

Chopping the Wood. The lengths are stacked and chopped into match-size pieces.

Dipping the matchheads. Often the whole match was soaked in fire-retardant ammonium phosphate. This is a fire retardant and stops the match form smouldering after the flame has gone out. Then the match heads are firstly dipped in paraffin wax. This provides a tiny amount of fuel, to transfer the flame from the chemicals to the wooden matchstick. When they are dry the matchheads are dipped in a chemical bath for five seconds and left to dry for an hour.

Gluing the matchbox. Usually made of card, the outer sleeve is cut, formed and glued by machine.

Gluing the inserts. In a similar way, the interior boxes are cut, folded, glued, and left to dry.

Inserting and sticking. At this point the all-important advertising labels are glued in place. The inside boxes are partially inserted into the outer sleeve, ready for filling.

Filling the boxes. And now the boxes are filled. A worker would load the hopper with matches and close the boxes by hand. Each box held around 50 matches, but the number was never exact.

Painting the striker plates. A rough striking surface is now cut and glued on to the side of the box. Now they are ready to go.

Now packed into cartons, the matches are ready to be transported around the world.

The Solo Lipnik Factory: 1090-1959