"Loco Foco" became the name of a a radical political group in the 1830s:

"Sensing defeat, the minions of Tammany Hall dimmed the gas lights, plunging the meeting into darkness. Responding to the shout "Let there be light!" the quick-thinking radicals struck a new brand of matches called "Loco Focos," and the name stuck."

Previously matches could only be lighted by striking the on a surface containing phosphorus.Apparently the loco-focos were the first strike-anywhere matches.

I hadn't heard of them, Dr. Bill--thank you. Here's an editorial cartoon, about
"THE DEATH OF OLD TAMMANY AND HIS WIFE LOCO FOCO."
http://www.loc.harpweek.com/LCPoliticalCartoons/IndexDisplayCartoonMedium.asp?SourceIndex=Topics&IndexText=Locofocos&UniqueID=36&Year=1837

oy! that link near ripped me monitor in two!

Oh--did it make your screen go wide? I'm sorry if it did. On mine, the link splits down to the next line after asp?.

after asp?

Hey, leave me outta this!

Made mine go wide, too, Jackie. Maybe it's a Mac thang, huh, eta...

Opera 5.0 for Mac: wide
M$ Internet Exploder 6.0 for PC: not

Netscape 6.2 - wide
IE 6.0 - not (same computer)

Previously matches could only be lighted by striking them on a surface containing phosphorus
With due respect - are you sure about that? I was always under the impression that it was the other way round: the first matches contained (white) phosphorus, and could be lighted on any surface - they often lighted spontaneously and caused poisonings. In the later safety matches, antimony sulfide and potassium chlorate is used, which ignites in contact with the red phosphorus of the matchbox.

Dear wsieber: The strike anywhere matches caused accidents.
I can remember newspaper stories about someone putting several of them in a pocket, and from sitting down have them ignite and cause severe burn. So safety matches were marketed that again had a special striking area on the outside of the package.