You can see in the matchbox pixtures in the page above, that they did use the term “impregnerade” to refer to their chemical treatment on the matchsticks.
This article says that the impregnation treatment was beneficial because it made matches blow out quickly without smoldering:
These matches don’t seem to be recorded in many museums, so probably either a modern gag, a period knock-off, or genuinely a Swedish person who didn’t realize that impregnerade had a double meaning in English.
There is a matchstick museum in Jönköping, Sweden that could probably answer.
the fact that the factory was in jönköping means that there is a distinct possibility that the word “goblin” is a mistranslation of “vättern”, which is the big lake jönköping sits on.
Thanks for the research! I will send the museum an email and ask if they know anything.
or genuinely a Swedish person who didn’t realize that impregnerade had a double meaning in English.
Or perhaps someone who knew what they were doing (but more likely not). Perhaps a way to market them outside of Sweden, though that really depends on when this was.
Did some Google searching myself:
The JWT stands for Jönköping Westra Tändstickfabrik, one of the major matchstick factories in Sweden before they consolidated into the Zyn company.
https://thoresmatches.se/tandsticksfabriker/jonkopings_westra_tandsticksfabrik.htm
You can see in the matchbox pixtures in the page above, that they did use the term “impregnerade” to refer to their chemical treatment on the matchsticks.
This article says that the impregnation treatment was beneficial because it made matches blow out quickly without smoldering:
https://thoresmatches.se/tandsticksfabriker/sakerhetstandstickan.htm
This post on the SomethingAwful forums seems to show an original photo of the match boxes, posted by someone with a Swedish username.
https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3948652&pagenumber=9#post521474833
These matches don’t seem to be recorded in many museums, so probably either a modern gag, a period knock-off, or genuinely a Swedish person who didn’t realize that impregnerade had a double meaning in English.
There is a matchstick museum in Jönköping, Sweden that could probably answer.
the fact that the factory was in jönköping means that there is a distinct possibility that the word “goblin” is a mistranslation of “vättern”, which is the big lake jönköping sits on.
Thanks for the research! I will send the museum an email and ask if they know anything.
Or perhaps someone who knew what they were doing (but more likely not). Perhaps a way to market them outside of Sweden, though that really depends on when this was.