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Bengal Matches

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These where akin to Sparklers but they where classified as matches not fireworks, because they where self-igniting and could not be stored with fireworks for this reason. Bengal matches looked like normal matches, but where slightly larger, stronger and chunkier. The match head was much larger than a normal one and when ignited it burnt bright (like a Storm Match) green or red (caused by the strontium or barium contained) for about 15 seconds, before turning into a normal flame.

Bengal matches came in a pack of around 10 and retailed for the same price as a small pack of sparklers. You could buy Bengal Matches in the 70s and early-80s in newsagents but then, for some reason, perhaps health and safety, they disappeared from the shelves and where never seen again.

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Do You Remember Bengal Matches?

Do You Remember Bengal Matches?

  • Anonymous user
    on
    That should say the 50 box on amazon
  • Anonymous user
    on
    If you buy the 5 box of indoor fireworks on amazon it contains 5x Bengal matches along with other stuff.£9.95 bit expensive but somebody still makes them in China.
  • Anonymous user
    on
    I do, i still have a box from the 80;s . Someone is selling them on ebay toay 22/11/19 at £5 plus postage a box, he must have stored them years ago. They were banned in the 80's because of complaints from the snowflake brigade. Won't be longbefore sparklrs are banned the way things are goingand theey are far more dangerous than the matches.
  • Anonymous user
    on
    These were in all the newsagents around Bonfire Night during the 1960/70s in The Blck Country where I grew up. Available in green or red, about 10 in a box. They burnt for 3-4 seconds and were struck on the box striker which was of a 'safety' type. We always knew them as 'Blue-lights' (though they did not burn blue!). What where they originally used for? Well, in his 'Wreck of the Golden Mary' Charles Dickens describes the use of 'Blue-lights' on deck aboard a stricken sailing vessel on the darkest of nights at sea. So it is possible they were an old fashioned emergency intense light source. Me and my mates loved 'em!
  • Anonymous user
    on
    I think of these every year and how I used to love them as a child. Don’t know if they can be bought any more as I have not seen them for years!
    • Anonymous user
      on
      I still have a box i kept fro my childhood, back then any kid could buy them in the sweet shop along with penny bangers,then the snowlakes got them banned.
      • Anonymous user
        on
        If you check you will see that the snowflakes did not get them banned and they are still available to buy. They just aren't popular anymore because there are other novelties to be had.
      • Anonymous user
        on
        If you check you will see that the snowflakes did not get them banned and they are still available to buy. They just aren't popular anymore because there are other novelties to be had.
      • Anonymous user
        on
        If you check you will see that the snowflakes did not get them banned and they are still available to buy. They just aren't popular anymore because there are other novelties to be had.
  • Anonymous user
    on
    Loved these when I was a kid. Could be found in Ireland up to mid '90s or even a little later i'm not sure, maybe like many things they weren't technically supposed to be sold.
  • Anonymous user
    on
    1952 in South Wales (Abercarn) our sweetshop had them, a magic memory
  • Anonymous user
    on
    remember getting thrown out of club for lighting these ;)

Do you remember these?