The History of Zippo Lighter
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Everthing began on one summer evening in 1932, during a dinner dance held at the Bradford Country Club, on a hill along the outskirts of Bradford, Pennsylvania. Participating in the dance was George G. Blaisdell, who soon after has become known as "Mr. Zippo." Blaisdell was one of those individuals looking for a new way to make money.
At this point, he had yet to bump into anything promising. Blaisdell, who was growing sick and tired of the dance and idle talk of politics, went out onto the terrace to have a smoke. There, he saw an associate of his looking to light a cigarette, acquiring of his pocket an unsightly brass lighter which was patently tawdry. The ugly lighter was certainly out of place in the hand belonging to the perfectly attired gentleman. The view of the man attempting clumsily to open the lighter's lid was so comical that Blaisdell practically did start to laugh. "You're all dressed up. Why not choose a lighter that looks decent?" blurted Blaisdell. His companion must have thought it was none of Blaisdell business. "It really works!" he announced, defensively. Those two words, "It does work!", whirled in George Blaisdell's head that night. During these times, everyone really should be in need of something that is low-priced, yet well-built and durable, he thought. No, that isn't so; those things are always desired, not just in bad times. This lighter business is promising!
Blaisdell right away obtained the sole U.S. rights belonging to the Austrian lighter manufacturer. To enhance its appearance, Blaisdell chrome-plated the lid for the lighter and raised the purchase price to a single dollar. He couldn't sell any, he discovered that there were defects with the lighter. Blaisdell was determined to create a replacement lighter that would not fail to light.
Walking away from the flawed Austrian lighter, Blaisdell leased a corner from the second floor of the Rickerson & Pryde, Inc. building on Boylston Street. Blaisdell paid up $10 a month in rent, employed three individuals, and began to develop completely new lighter. He and the team used an electric powered hot plate for soldering. Everything from the punch press to the welder was second-hand tools. The whole cost of his gear was $260 back then. The initial thing Blaisdell did was to make the lighter small sized to be able to fit in the palm of one's hand, and he incorporated a hinge to support the lid to the bottom, so that it is an integral part of the lighter. This enabled anyone to open the lighter only using just one hand. Blaisdell then put in a wind hood surrounding the wick, he employed the hood structure of the Austrian lighter and named the new product "Zippo".
Article Source: Articlelogy.com
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