Fire played a decisive role in early human civilization. Humanity's understanding of fire has also evolved from fear and panic at the beginning to active use, and finally achieved the purpose of benefiting mankind by creating fire. The originator of modern lighters can be said to be the 16th-century European tinder box and the equally famous CHUCKMUCKRS lighter box. They both work on the same principle, both use a sparking iron to generate sparks to ignite the tinder. The difference is that the tinder box's lighter is tied to one side by a chain, while the tinder box is completely integrated. The latter is Chinese. Not long after the world's first pistol came out, the first early lighter also appeared, because it was modified from a pistol and was called a tinder pistol. This kind of lighter has long been used as a status symbol and office decoration.
Pistol-type fire starters are still in production, but the principle is different. Tools that use glass to refract or reflect sunlight to start a fire are also a type of lighter. It is said that there was a way of counting days in ancient my country. A cannon barrel was pointed in the direction of the sun at noon every day. A lens was installed on the barrel and gunpowder was placed below. When noon arrives, the lens focuses the sunlight on the gunpowder, and a bang indicates noon. The gunpowder would then be repositioned and awaiting the next noon.
In Germany after the Renaissance, chemistry made great progress. A friend of Goethe's named Du Bolena invented the hydrogen lighter. In the 18th century, lighters that used a rope to ignite fire appeared. Next came phosphorus and kerosene or wax lighters, corundum grinding wheels and match ropes, and gasoline lighters. The Crimean dispute that broke out in 1854 led to the rapid development of the cigarette industry. Before that, people in Eastern Europe and the Balkans smoked cigarettes. In Western Europe, chewing tobacco and pipe tobacco are the main products. During the war, the Eastern Europeans could take a few puffs between battles, and their opponents would hear the sound of departure as soon as they loaded a pipe and pot.
Smoking has become more and more convenient, and lighters have also developed to use a lighter wheel to ignite a match, and then use the match to ignite gasoline. During this period, matches were also invented due to the discovery of phosphorus. Many lighters are also matchboxes.
The fuel problem seems easy to solve. The problem is that the method of generating sparks has always been clumsy. The lighter wheel we use today was actually developed by the Austrian Auer. Auer discovered that metal made of iron-cerium alloy can easily produce large-area sparks when igniting. The metal was named after Orr. Orr metal's sparkling wheel was not the current round shape with a file shape at the beginning. After some exploration, it developed into flint and was installed in a flint tube. In order to ensure that there is enough pressure between the flint and the flint, the flint is There is a spring structure below, which can generate sparks by rubbing the wheel. Orr solved the problem of spark generation, and to this day, it is still the mainstream way to ignite lighters. However, people did not think of using a runner at the beginning. They used a half-runner. However, they soon realized that the disadvantage of this reciprocating half-wheel was that the flint wore out too quickly, because the flint had to be sharpened even when not making fire.
Later, the development of science and technology led to the invention of electric ignition. Modern cars that burn liquid and gaseous fuels are ignited by spark plug discharge.
Although the lighter is small, it reflects humankind's understanding of nature and the development of industrial civilization.
The fuel of lighters has also experienced tinder, match rope, sulfur, phosphorus (red phosphorus, white phosphorus), paraffin, kerosene, alcohol/perfume, hydrogen, methane, coal gas to gasoline, butane. Among them, when gasoline was not used in cars, it was chosen as the fuel for lighters.
When the spark problem and fuel problem were solved, the lighter industry developed rapidly. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, there were lighter factories everywhere. Some used metal and some used bakelite (phenolic resin) as the casing. It was like a hundred flowers were blooming. Around 1993, some Jews in Germany immigrated to the United Kingdom and the United States because they could not bear the persecution of the Nazis. Some lighter manufacturers among them fled to London, and they began to manufacture lighters in the United Kingdom. At this time, Alfred Dunhill, who opened a pipe shop, started making lighters.
At this time in America, a man named Aranson created the Ranson lighter, and Ranson applied for a patent for its banjo shape. This kind of disposable lighter filled with gasoline and flint was brilliant for a long time. Later, like many manufacturers, production was discontinued.
In the history of lighter manufacturing, the most legendary and longest-lasting product (which can still be seen in department stores around the world) is the American ZIPPO lighter.