“Bilbo had forgotten his matches.”

The Hobbit

“Oin and Gloin had lost their tinder-boxes. (Dwarves have never taken to matches even yet.)”

The Hobbit

The hobbits were the first to put it in their pipes and smoke it.

The Fellowship of the Ring

“Among the wise I am the only one that goes in for hobbit-lore: an obscure branch of knowledge, but full of surprises.”

Gandalf., The Fellowship of the Ring

Notice! Making matches requires advanced techniques of production that not even the dwarves were messing around with. Certainly the dwarves were advanced in other ways, but not in matches. Elves, obviously, weren’t making matches. And as for men, I see no evidence for them being the inventors. Let’s ask the question that should be asked of any invention, “Cui Bono?” One of the younger creatures of Middle Earth has great demand for quick fires, the smoking, toking hobbits. And were than Hobbits that might invent? A Took is one of the adventurous, curious types! Thus, it stands to reason that hobbits are the inventors. Not only that, but this invention explains at least part of Gandalf’s fascination with the little creatures.

The easiest version of strike-matches that I can discover requires antimony and saltpeter as raw minerals followed by a difficult, but achievable-for-a-crazy-enough-hobbit, set of procedures to make antimony sulfide and potassium chloride. Mix them together with a glue and stick them on a toothpick head, or something of the sort, and, presto!, you have a match to strike against sandpaper. (A US patent for sandpaper dates to 1834, the manufacturer of which would need glue, rollers, cloth or paper, and pulverized quartz or glass).

These raw materials would be available from the trade between the Iron Hills and along the Great Road.

When would matches have been invented? Tobold Hornblower of the Southfarthing was the first to grow true pipe-weed in his gardens around T.A. 2670 (S.R. 1070). Smoking would best be served by a method for a quick light, even when one is away from immediate fire. There was high demand for quick solutions for lighting a pipe, especially among the small creatures for whom smoking is such delight, it was common practice among dwarves, men, and, even, wizards.

Tolkien implies that by T.A. 2941, matches were widely used, but the dwarves still carried tinder-boxes, holding on to the practice long after it was strictly sensible to do so. Nostalgia is a powerful force in Tolkien’s world. So, we might imagine the dwarves are at least a century out of step of what is likely a common product among intelligent smokers.

If we imagine matches were invented at least 100 years before 2941, this would put the invention of matches sometime between 2670 and 2841. If we assume it took two generations for smoking to fully penetrate the Shire then, perhaps add 66 years for a second generation of smokers to come of age. That puts us between 2736 and 2841.

Now, I think, it always make sense to fit Gandalf into the picture. Gandalf knew of the Hobbits sometime right before 2758, when he came to their aid during the Long Winter.

I would like to think in addition to their courage and stoutheartedness, and despite their squishy exteriors, Gandalf also noticed their matches.

You can imagine the scene: Gandalf found a hobbit, let’s name him Fife Graytoe, working on matches sometime near the year 2750, and he immediately showed a keen interest, seeing in this a surprising development. Not only did they have rudimentary firecrackers too, but young Fife was trying to control that power. How the Hobbits would be impressed when they saw what Gandalf could do with fireworks! With a little nudge, Gandalf helped Fife along. Shortly thereafter, hobbits were exporting not only tobacco, but matches to boot.

Or perhaps, Gandalf showed the hobbits how to make matches to help them with tobacco smoking, of which he was quite fond, and he apprenticed a hobbit or two, keeping the art secret. Hobbits, like Gandalf, might wield the secret power of quick controlled combustion!