Some people light a match after stinking up the bathroom in order to lessen the effects of the chili they had the night before. I suggest making a sprayable deodorizer that contains the same chemicals given off by the burning match. This would eliminate burned fingers, drapes and silk flowers and would also decrease the risk of exploding gasses.
-- gootyam, Mar 24 2004

How Matches work http://www.pa.msu.e.../ask_st/092596.html
Try "Country Scent" next time. [Letsbuildafort, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

hydrogen sulphide... http://www.saburchi...apters/chap035.html
[po, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

Why does a lit match cover smell http://www.madsci.o...923460606.Ch.r.html
Either: 1) it doesn't, 2) sulphur dioxide numbs the sense of smell, 3) it oxidises various smelly stuff, 4) smoke absorbs other odours. [kropotkin, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

Thats red phosphorous, buddy. I'm not sure you'd want that in aerosol form. On the other hand, it would make a great home-defense spray.
-- Letsbuildafort, Mar 24 2004


Label reads: "New formula: Now with imitation red phosphorous!"
-- gootyam, Mar 24 2004


So you want to take a dirt cheap and readily available product and repackage it in a can? Fishbone for wasting our time.
-- DrCurry, Mar 24 2004


Happy to help, Doc
-- gootyam, Mar 24 2004


Premise problem. The burning match doesn't give off a chemical.

The theory behind 'light a match' is that the odor is supposedly caused by errant methane in the air, and the match burns away the methane, removing the odor. This is not the case.

Hydrogen sulfide is the culprit, not methane. So the method doesn't work, but no one notices that and goes on doing it regardless.
-- waugsqueke, Mar 24 2004


hydrogen sulphide is flammable is it not?
-- po, Mar 24 2004


Yes. But waving a match around doesn't burn stuff out of the atmosphere.
-- waugsqueke, Mar 24 2004


I was always under the impression that the smell of the chemicals reacting at the head of the match is supposed to overpower any kind of human-born smell in the area in question ...
-- Letsbuildafort, Mar 24 2004


why doesn't it, waugs.
-- po, Mar 24 2004


Look it up.
-- waugsqueke, Mar 24 2004


well I just found a page that says a lighted match will burn a combination of hydrogen sulphide and oxygen to produce sulphur and water.

I also read that hydrogen sulphide is a rather lethal gas. my chemistry is a bit rusty.
-- po, Mar 24 2004


I think it's sulfur that's burning in a match head and that is what masks the other smells.
-- gootyam, Mar 24 2004


Lighted candles are good for destroying the chemicals in onions that make your eyes water. Wouldn't be at all surprised if they work for odors generally. But that is not what this idea is about.
-- DrCurry, Mar 25 2004


There doesn't seem to be any consensus about whether or how burning matches masks smell (See link to MadSci article).

Re H2S combustion: Gas has to be a certain concentration (called the lower explosive limit) in air before it will burn or explode. I can't find the LEL of hydrogen sulphide, but it is toxic at the level of 1-3 mg per litre, which suggests it would poison you long before it would ignite. Methane has an LEL of 5%-15%, but methane is of course odourless.
-- kropotkin, Mar 26 2004



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