Fire in your pocket

The sources of fire

Specialists are of the opinion that the basic prerequisite for the creation of the lighter was the invention of the firearm. At the beginning of the 16th century (circa 1515 is the supposed date), the musket appeared. In this gun, a spark is produced by a special wheel striking a flint, and the spark ignites the gunpowder.

But in the 16th century, no one gave any thought to the fact that the new mechanism could have applications other than its use in firearms. It took another hundred years for military technology to be applied to peace-time requirements. And, strange as it may seem, it was the arms manufacturers themselves that introduced the conversion. Enterprising master craftsmen managed to convert broken firearms into some fairly interesting tools for producing fire. Tinder was put into the barrel of a pistol, and the spark from the flint mechanism lighted the wood instead of gunpowder.

The instrument was more akin to a portable torch than a lighter and, as is not difficult to guess, it was neither convenient to use nor reliable. A mechanism for igniting gunpowder that had fought its way through many a battle would not infrequently go wrong, and the tinder could practically never be relied upon to light first time. But for all that, there was a fairly stable demand for these ‘incendiary pistols’. Probably, their frightening appearance was far more important than other characteristics. A lighter like this could not only be used to ignite a candle, but to frighten of an attacker. Different types of pistol-lighters were popular in the taverns and inns, but for domestic use there was no competition – the familiar steel and flint remained the most popular means of producing a spark.

A serious alternative to this technological anachronism was not found till the end of the 18th century, and then it was not the lighter as we know it, but the match. Their manufacture became possible after the French chemist, Claude Louis Berthollet, discovered potassium chlorate and, incidentally, Berthollet’s Salt – as the new substance subsequently became known – is still used in the production of matches today.

In the modern world, every new technological discovery is preceded by a long period of scientific work that is designed to achieve a set objective. But two hundred years ago things were different, and scientists had no idea in advance what precise applications their discoveries might have. That was the way matches were invented – and the way lighters first appeared.

In the early 19th century, the German chemist, Johann Wolfgang Dobereiner discovered completely by accident the catalytic qualities of finely granulated platinum, in the presence of which hydrogen burned much more strongly and rapidly. Unlike the majority of scientists of his period, Dobereiner was excited not only by the discovery itself, but by the possibilities it might have for practical application. The German chemist continued his work and was soon able to present to the court of public opinion an instrument for producing fire that might well be called the first real lighter.

Dobereiner’s invention was fairly compact and could easily be placed on a writing desk. Unfortunately, Dobereiner had not taken into consideration the fact that hydrogen was not only a fuel, but also a very explosive substance. His lighter proved to be so dangerous that contemporaries gave it the name that was commonly used for a bomb – an ‘infernal machine’.

Dunhill follows the trail

After Johann Dobereiner's lack of success, lighters were forgotten about for several decades and not remembered again till the middle of the 19th century, when the fashion for smoking cigars swept through Europe. Strange as it may seem, it was to cigars and not to cigarettes that lighters owe their rapid development. Demand, as everyone knows, generates supply. The popularity of cigars compelled many European entrepreneurs to think seriously about producing special accessories for them. First came the ashtray and the cigar case, and now it was the turn of the lighter.

This time scientists and inventors were given a very specific task – to create a compact, attractive, reliable and long-lasting instrument for producing a flame that would satisfy consumer demand. Safety, of course, was an essential requirement.

The new generation lighters did not appear till the 1860s. The traditional lighting mechanism consisting of wheels and flint was retained, and a wick soaked in liquid fuel was added. When turned, the wheels would strike the flint to produce a spark which lighted the wick. This super-modern novelty was to the taste of smokers in the more well-to-do classes of society. And not even its high price could detract from the popularity of this new lighter, and the taming of the flame became a symbol of technical progress.

The construction of lighters remained practically unchanged till the beginning of the 20th century. Such improvements as were made related mainly to the lighter's appearance. Designs became more sophisticated year by year, and soon they became collectors' items for well-off Europeans. It is believed that it was at this time that the tradition of engraving the surface of lighters with family coats-of-arms and monograms, personal initials or memorable dates was first begun.

A new step in the evolution of the lighter was taken in 1903, when the Austrian chemist, Karl Auer von Welsbach fused iron and cerium in his laboratory. Research showed that this new alloy had the same characteristics as ordinary flint, but was much lighter and more durable. The discovery attracted the attention of lighter manufacturers, because by using this alloy instead of the traditional flint, the size of the lighter could be considerably reduced. The improved lighter suited everyone, because thanks to the new flint, the lighter became not only more compact, but more reliable.

But there was still one serious shortcoming. All lighters of the period without exception required the use of two hands: one to hold the lighter and the other to turn the horizontal wheel. And that, one must admit, was not particularly convenient.

The lighter was first adapted for single-hand use in the 1920s by two English engineers and friends – Frederick Charles Wise and Willy Greenwood. One of them had lost his arm in the war and, being an inveterate smoker, longed to be able to light cigarettes by himself without someone else's help. The two friends tried a number of alternatives for solving the problem and ended up by creating a lighter with a vertically placed wheel. This apparently simple solution was revolutionary for its time. Now, in order to produce a flame, it was only necessary to flick the wheel by holding the lighter in the hand and making a single movement with the thumb.

By an irony of fate, Wise and Greenwood's workshop was located right opposite Alfred Dunhill's tobacco shop. Without taking too long to think about it, the two friends patented their invention and offered it to the Dunhill Company. Alfred Dunhill had always said that the secret of his success lay in the fact that little ideas could bring in a fortune, so his agreement to accept the new design was immediate. The first lighter in history that required only one hand to operate it went on sale in 1924 under the name of the Dunhill Unique. Its case was either silver or gold plated and ornamented with crocodile skin or ostrich feather inlays. It was so elegant to look at and so convenient to use that it caused a sensation among smokers. But Alfred Dunhill did not stop here, and in 1926 produced another revolutionary model, which he named the Dunhill Unique Watch – a lighter and watch combined. According to contemporaries, the watch on the lighter kept as good time as any Swiss watch, while there was no question about the quality of the flame. The idea of creating a multifunctional lighter was so successful that literally within a few years the market was flooded with all sorts of different combinations from lighter-bracelets to lighter-cigar cases.

Towards the end of the 1920s, the Swiss company, Torrens, made a serious statement with the production of the first automatic lighter in history. The company's engineers supplemented the lighting mechanism with a cover and connected it to the fuel chamber. Now, the application of pressure to a special valve would raise the wick cover and at the same time operate the lighting mechanism, which consisted of a small wheel and a piece of flint. Never had the lighter been so easy to use.

During the 1930s, the European companies suspended research on the technical modernization of their lighters and concentrated entirely on design. Collectors and art experts are convinced that the lighters of this period can be used to trace not only the history of technical progress, but all stages in the development of art from the early minimalism of art deco. Laconic gold and silver lighters gradually yielded ground to fanciful expensive models. By the mid 1930s, this had resulted in the appearance of real mastodons such as the lighter-plane and the lighter- car. The Dunhill Company went the furthest, producing a lighter in the form of a lighthouse that was no more and no less than one and a half metres in height and that was given an entry in the Guinness Book of Records.

The American Dream

The Europeans were so carried away by fashionable novelties that they neglected entirely the practical side of the lighter production. Not that this meant an end to the modernization of lighter construction during the 1930s, only that it was continued on the other side of the Atlantic in the United States.

The father of the American national lighter was George Blaisdell. His story began in 1932 in the town of Bradford, Pennsylvania, where he had his own company manufacturing simple oil-extraction equipment. There are numerous stories as to how exactly Blaisdell first got the idea of producing lighters. In all probability, the most likely one is his own. According to George himself, it was his friend Dick Dresser who first gave him the idea.
One evening the two friends went to their club, and after the dancing and the drinking and the traditional discussions about politics, they went on to the veranda for a smoke. Dick took an old Austrian lighter from his pocket and, with what was clearly a lot of effort, tried to get the cover off the lighting mechanism. He was a fairly wealthy man so George was surprised:
"Why don't you get yourself a decent lighter?"
"Because this one – unlike all the others – works!" Dick had replied.

When the cover was finally removed, the tattered Austrian lighter did light despite a fairly strong wind. But the incident produced an indelible impression on George Blaisdell: he realized that for many consumers, the reliability of a lighter was far more important than its external appearance.

Blaisdell began his business by buying an exclusive licence to import Austrian lighters into the United States. But this proved to be a complete waste of time and money: he couldn't sell a single one, because the patriotic Americans preferred their own national lighters to the ones made in Austria, even though the latter were better. But George Blaisdell was not disheartened by the failure, and decided to spend his last money on the design and production of his own lighter. He rented a workshop, bought a number of second-hand lathes, and hired three metal workers. Instead of slavishly copying the Austrian model, Blaisdell decided that it should undergo serious modification. First of all, he reduced the size of the lighter so that it fitted perfectly in the hand. Then he fixed the cover to the body by a hinge with the result that it could now be opened using one hand without the slightest effort. The casing which was made of brass he chrome-plated so as to make it stronger and more comfortable. The windshield around the wick he left untouched, but made some slight modifications to the wheel and the flint.
The new lighter, which was fated to become one of the symbols of America, was called the Zippo, presumably taking its name from the word 'zip' as in 'zip-fastener' – which was quick and easy to use. It cost $1.95, and in the first month almost one hundred were sold. The far-sighted Blaisdell invested this money in advertising his brand. Zippo ads concentrated attention on the new lighter's main attraction – its reliability in windy and adverse weather conditions. In his hometown of Bradford, Blaisdell supplied the local bus drivers with his lighters free of charge on condition that they demonstrated their wind-resistance capabilities to their passengers.

The wind-resistant Zippos became increasingly popular, and in 1937 Blaisdell decided to enlarge his range. A 'Sports Series' was issued, each with a picture of a hunter, a fisherman, a yachtsman, a baseball player, a golfer or a skier on the side. Then he began to turn out models with ceramic finishes and other ornamentation. After the war, he produced lighters with the markings of the various armed services.

The rising popularity of the Zippo made it possible for Blaisdell right from the first day to introduce a lifelong guarantee for his lighters. Today, you can send a broken Zippo lighter from any country in the world to Bradford and have it repaired. And it doesn't matter what year it was made in either, since the construction of the Zippo lighter has not changed one bit throughout the almost seventy years of its history.

Specially for cigars

In the first half of the twentieth century, the most common fuel for lighters was petrol. This was not in the least to the liking of cigar smokers, since petrol has a strong smell, which is instantly absorbed by the cigar, and which thus spoils the latter's organoleptic qualities. So to obtain maximum pleasure from their cigars, the majority of aficionados went back to using matches.

In the 1930s, the famous European companies like Dunhill and Cartier began to put elite lines of cigar accessories on the market. These included various kinds of guillotines, cigar cases and soft covers. But the one thing that was lacking to satisfy the aesthetic requirements of cigar smokers was a special lighter. A solution was eventually found, but not until after the war. At the international exhibition in Paris in 1947, S.T. Dupont presented the world's first gas lighter, which used butane gas instead of the traditional petrol. Unlike petrol, butane gas has no heavy compounds in its make up that give off a sharp smell when burning. Gas lighters proved to be absolutely harmless for cigars.

It was not long before other European manufacturers began producing lighters that were analogous to the French original. In 1956, the Dunhill Rollagas appeared and, in the same year, the first accessories line of the new Swiss company, Diplomat, included several elegant gas lighters.

A quarter of a century later, S.T. Dupont produced another innovation, when it replaced the traditional flint lighting system with an electronic ignition. The new system, which was invented by engineers at S.T. Dupont, was known as piezoelectric. When stress is applied to a piezoelectric crystal, electric polarity is produced and a weak current is sent across two electrodes causing a spark to jump. This spark then ignites either a petrol-soaked wick or butane gas released from the lighter.

Disposable fire

From the moment that the lighter first appeared, it was basically intended for the more well-to-do. Then the complexity of construction, the use of new technological innovation, and the unchanging high quality of its finish meant that prices charged for lighters spiralled to dizzy heights. In this way, they remained for a long time the privilege of the betteroff classes of society, while the masses were content to use matches. This situation lasted for quite a long time and even in the middle of the 20th century, the simplest lighters were rarely sold for less than 10-15 dollars.

The first lighter to be sold at a price to suit everyone's pocket was made by the famous French entrepreneur, Marcel Bich. He had made something of a name for himself in the 1950s, when he put the world's first disposable ball-point pen on the market, and within a few years was able to squeeze out the leading manufacturers of traditional ballpoint pens. Bich launched the world's first disposable lighter in 1973. The use of gas instead of petrol made it possible to make the body of the lighter out of plastic. This meant that the size and the weight of the lighter could be reduced to a minimum, as could the price.

In a matter of months, the famous catchy promotional 'Click Bic' flew around the world and almost instantly won the hearts of consumers. The secret of Bic lighters' success was simple: they were a whole lot cheaper than those of their competitors, and they were reliable and practical. The plastic lighter was offered in several bright colours that suited the young and trendy in the age of the hippy. The better-off also took to the new lighter. Lighters and pens, as everyone knew, were frequently lost, but a plastic disposable bic was so cheap that people didn't mind so much losing them.

Marcel Bich's company was soon followed by other companies producing disposable lighters. The most successful was the Swedish Match Company from Sweden, which has been one of the largest manufacturers of matches since 1917. In the 1980s, its owners acquired the British company, Wilkinson Sword, and on the basis of this began the production of disposable lighters under the brand name Cricket. Apart from Bic and Cricket, disposable lighters are also produced under the popular brand names Amatti and Feudor.

The hi-tech era

The process of improving the lighter has always been linked to general technological progress. The oil era was reflected in the invention of the petrol lighter. The worldwide spread of another source of energy – natural gas – resulted in the appearance of the gas lighter. And the invention of the piezoelectric system coincided with the beginning of the era of digital and electronic technology.

Most people, asked what they consider to be the best television set, would unambiguously reply: a Japanese one. And over the last few decades, the Japanese have justly gained their reputation as the leader in the field of hi-tech. So there is nothing strange in the fact that the Japanese have managed to amaze the world with a new lighter.
In 1986, the Japanese company, Sarome, presented the world's first turbo lighter. The novelty pleased cigar smokers so much that today, according to world statistics, every second cigar smoker uses a turbo lighter. Furthermore, the absolute majority of aficionados today are convinced that turbo lighters were invented specially to light cigars. But in actual fact they weren't. The Sarome specialists were just putting an elegant casing around technology that at first had nothing to do with cigars or cigarettes, and nothing whatsoever to do with expensive elite accessories. This technology relates to the fact that gas, when lit under high pressure, forms a small flame with even contours and a very high temperature.

The first turbo lighters were fairly cumbersome objects and used by dentists for creating precision wax moulds for dentures. But technological evolution made it possible to reduce the size of the instrument and it came on to the DIY building market. Compact industrial lighters, producing a flame with a temperature in excess of 10,000°C could be used in the home instead of a soldering iron. The next to appreciate the innovation were tourists and backpackers – the high pressure gas guaranteed that the lighter wouldn't go out in the wind and still burn despite rain or snow.

By the early 1990s, turbo lighters had gained widespread acclaim among devotees of cigars and good tobacco, because they were ideal for lighting cigars and far in advance of traditional gas lighters. In the turbo lighter, the gas is released in a directed flow under very high pressure. This makes it possible not only to light up quickly but to burn the tip as evenly as possible.

Today, turbo lighters are produced not only by the Japanese Sarome Company but by a number of European companies. Colibri, S.T. Dupont, Blazer and Prometheus have been the most successful. The last of these only appeared quite recently – in 1992 – but from the very start, turbo lighters were its main business. The Prometheus Company was the first to begin production of turbo lighters which were combined with that instrument that is so necessary to cigar lovers, the guillotine. Today, its range even includes turbo lighters with built in cigar scissors.
Basically, modern turbo lighters have little in common with those that were produced in the 1980s. Since then, they have undergone numerous improvements, and become more compact, lighter and more elegant. Their construction has also changed. In the early 1990s, Sarome produced a lighter with a 'double' flame: the smoker can see the high flame of the ordinary lighter, under which the fiery jet of the turbo lighter is hidden. In respect of technical innovations, the Prometheus Company stands out. Its specialists have created a turbo lighter in which the fire is released in a ring. The large main aperture, through which the gas is expelled, is ringed with almost thirty tiny holes. This gives the flame volume, and many smokers are of the opinion that it is better suited to lighting cigars.

The design of present-day turbo lighters fully accords with the spirit of the epoch. Lighters during the first half of the 20th century glittered with gold, silver and precious stones. Modern turbo lighters, as a rule, are finished in a quieter, more minimalist style, cold steel emphasizing their place in the hi-tech world. True, the price of a turbo lighter corresponds to the prices that producers gave their products in the early part of the last century. A good and reliable lighter from Prometheus, Colibri or S.T. Dupont costs about one hundred dollars.

The fact that more than half of all cigar smokers in the world prefer turbo lighters does not mean that those gold and silver works of art of the past have become obsolete and no longer of value in the present. Nowadays, they are considered rarities and are very much in demand with collectors and devotees.

Companies like Dunhill and Cartier that have long been producing lighters and accessories have no intention of departing from the classical cannons. Their lighters are still done in gold and silver or, if you wish, there are still models encrusted with precious stones, which are certain to be approved of by even the most demanding aesthetes and avid conservatives. That the age of gold and glitter has not ended was loudly proclaimed by Dunhill in 1986, when it produced the most expensive lighter in the company's history, costing more than $56,000. And for that reason, incidentally, Alfred Dunhill & Co got into the pages of the Guinness Book of Records for the second time.

***

Today there are few who can see the prehistoric steel and flint as the prototype of the modern turbo lighter. But the connection between them is clear – it's just that over the centuries and even the millennia of its development, the instrument for producing fire has undergone many changes. 

The ancient Greeks, who created the myth of Prometheus – the god who gave men fire and was punished for it by the other gods – saw fire as the source of the divine principle. So they would be utterly amazed to see man today producing a flame quite easily from a tiny object with the flick of his fingers. We do it dozens of times a day when lighting a stove, lighting our way in the dark and, of course, lighting a cigar. So thank you, Prometheus, and thank all those who have made fire so easy to use and tame!

Cigar Clan 4'2006 vol.1. Eldar Tuzmukhamedov