chemistry

Gustaf Erik Pasch

Gustaf Erik Pasch is a chemistry topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Gustaf Erik Pasch rather than just read about it. In short: Gustaf Erik Pasch (born Berggren) (3 September 1788 – 6 September 1862) was a Swedish inventor and professor of chemistry at Karolinska institute in Stockholm and inventor of the safety match. He was born in Norrköping, the son of a carpenter.

Key takeaways

Gustaf Erik Pasch belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Gustaf Erik Pasch to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Gustaf Erik Pasch from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Gustaf Erik Pasch (born Berggren) (3 September 1788 – 6 September 1862) was a Swedish inventor and professor of chemistry at Karolinska institute in Stockholm and inventor of the safety match. He was born in Norrköping, the son of a carpenter. He enrolled at Uppsala University 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, 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.

Safety matches

Jöns Jacob Berzelius, who invented the modern chemical notation, discovered that the dangerous white phosphorus in matches could be replaced with the more benign red phosphorus, 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. 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

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Gustaf Erik Pasch

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Gustaf Erik Pasch claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Gustaf Erik Pasch before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Gustaf Erik Pasch ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Gustaf Erik Pasch

In research: Gustaf Erik Pasch appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Gustaf Erik Pasch in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Gustaf Erik Pasch is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1788 births, 1862 deaths, 19th-century Swedish inventors, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Gustaf Erik Pasch outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Gustaf Erik Pasch in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Gustaf Erik Pasch means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Gustaf Erik Pasch out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Gustaf Erik Pasch in simple terms?

Why does Gustaf Erik Pasch matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Gustaf Erik Pasch?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Gustaf Erik Pasch.