The Short Story About The American Icon - The Legendary Zippo Lighter

Some key points about the famous Zippo lighter

Below the Zippo Lighter in Alexander Brown song 'Last time' featuring Szhirley, back from 2012.

A Zippo lighter is a refillable metal lighter manufactured by Zippo Manufacturing Company in Bradford, USA. George Grant Blaisdell founded the company back in 1932.

He spotted the name for the company 'Zippo', because another invention was just launched at the same time, the famous invention called 'the Zipper'. George really liked that name "Zipper", so he stripped the name into 'Zippo'.

The traditional Zippo lighter is a naphtha, fuel lighter that produces a flame once operated. Although a Zippo lighter is very easy to operate, the actual construction and design of this famous object is rather complex. It consists of 22 parts and requires 108 manufacturing processes!

All lighters are initially made of brass and then they receive a special coating later on during the manufacturing process. Examples of different coatings are Chrome, PVD, Powder and gold plating.

Subsequently the American entrance into World War II in 1941, Zippo continued its production of Zippo lighters. However, all Zippo lighters were strictly reserved for the American military, through which the brand truly achieves its fame.

Zippo produced its famous lighter no. 400 million in September 2003. That is a huge number of lighters by the way. If you put all of those Zippo lighters in a straight line, they would be able to stretch halfway around the equator.

Zippo lighters gained huge popularity as "windproof" lighters, as they are capable to perform even in very rough conditions.

Many people consider a Zippo lighter as a collector's item, rather than a normal everyday lighter. Zippo lighters are available in a broad range of styles and designs, many of which are vintage or "limited editions".

Zippo has also developed other lighter products, such as Zippo Blu and Zippo Blu2. Both of these lighters are gas lighters, and they are able to produce an extreme hot flame that burns at 3000 degrees.

Other lighter models such as the mini MPL also runs on gas, and provides the ability to fire up objects at a longer distance.

Naturally, it is possible to purchase an 18K Solid Gold Zippo lighter, as well as Sterling Silver Zippo lighters.