thumb|
John Walker (29 May 1781– 1 May 1859) was an English chemist and pharmacist credited with inventing the friction light, the first commercially successful friction match, in either 1826 or 1827. Upon demonstration of the general principle, others quickly improved and industrialized his formulation, driving the price down until he ceased to make his matches by 1830.
Life
thumb|right|250px|The belated publication of Walker's discovery as it appeared in the 10 October 1829 edition of the Sheffield Independent.
Walker was born in Stockton-on-Tees, Durham, England on 29 May 1781. He went to the local grammar school and was afterwards apprenticed to Watson Alcock, the principal surgeon of the town. He had, however, an aversion to the era's surgical operations and had to leave the profession, turning instead to chemistry. After studying in Durham and York, he set up a small business as a chemist and pharmacist at 59 High Street, Stockton, around 1818. While experimenting with various chemical matches for the use of local hunters, he invented the first practical and commercially successful friction match in 1826 or 1827, but he demurred from securing a royal patent, stating "I doubt not it will be a benefit to the public, so let them have it." The invention was greatly publicized by Michael Faraday's lectures in London in 1829 and by journal articles the same year, but other producersparticularly Samuel Jones, a chemist in Londonquickly replicated and improved his product, causing him to cease its production by 1830.
He had already been creating variations on Jean Chancel's dipping chemical matches for use by local hunters. or even record it in his notes, such that it was necessary to later analyze his products to establish that they were wooden sticks 3 inches long by inches wide by inches high (7.6×0.4×0.1cm) Walker never referred to them as "matches", "lucifers", or "Congreves".) From 18271829, Walker sold a few hundred sets of matches at the price of 1 shilling 2 pence for 100 matches and the tin or 1 shilling flat for 84 matches and the tin. Jones began commercializing a version of Holden's product throughout Britain as the "Promethean" or "lucifer match" (, "light-bearer"). Its popularityand much lower priceprompted Walker to stop making his own formulation by 1830.