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A Straight Match

keep your burnt matches on the straight and narrow
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When you strike a match with a wooden shaft, and let it burn, the burnt bit often curls over in an untidy manner, and can even drop off, but not any more.

Inside every Straight Match is a strand of reinforcing wire which discourages this unpredictable curling action.

xenzag, Jun 17 2010

These ones stay pretty straight. http://images.bidor...ZIPPO_LIGHTER_3.jpg
[2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jun 17 2010]

These ones stay pretty. http://farm1.static...1305_283fcfabce.jpg
[swimswim, Jun 17 2010]

bent! http://matchesforsa...ges/burnt_match.JPG
but i'll fix that [xenzag, Jun 17 2010]

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       this will transmit heat down the wire and heat up the shaft while sapping heat from the combustion.
Voice, Jun 17 2010
  

       Manufacture the match with a curl in the opposite direction and the match will straighten when it burns ...
Aristotle, Jun 17 2010
  

       But how can we perform "grandpa's last stand" after a few beers?
wagster, Jun 17 2010
  

       the curling happens with a candle wick made of fibre, but those often have a wire to reinforce them anyway. In my experience, a wooden match stays pretty straight, blackens and falls off. so not sure what you are proposing.
dentworth, Jun 17 2010
  

       They curl up, and I'm going to put a stop to it.
xenzag, Jun 17 2010
  

       okey doke
dentworth, Jun 17 2010
  

       I know it's a stupid, useless idea, of no practical purpose, but isn't that the essence of the halfbakery? It is for me anyway.
xenzag, Jun 17 2010
  

       I love this idea!!!
dentworth, Jun 17 2010
  

       What causes the bending? It must be something to do with heat, so I suggest a little rotating collar at the base of the match. One side would have an IR laser and the other a jet of liquid nitrogen. The bending of the match would be detected by some kind of remote sensing array, triggering collar-spinning -laser-flashing -liquid-nitrogen-squirting -match-straightening action.
pocmloc, Jun 17 2010
  

       The match will tend to curl up, but generally when the diameter is sufficiently reduced. By using a fat match, your fingers will burn before the match can bend.
ldischler, Jun 18 2010
  

       I wonder if there is a coriolis effect causing matches on this side of the equator to curl clockwise or counter and tongues of flame from a campfire...and while I'm on an elemental tangent, are sink holes, volcanic eruptions and continental drift also coriolis effect effected?
hmmmm
  


 

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