The making of Zippo lighters

‘The American icon’

 

The story of the Zippo lighter is not just a story about the manufacturing or who created it. It has the story of the past and history follows the story with Zippo taking place in certain events in history. The man who we have to thank for this legendary lighter is George G Blaisdell, but the other people we have to also thank are the employees, customers and collectors for keeping the brand going.

1930’s

Zippo lighters first came about in the early 1930’s, at Bradford Country club in Pennsylvania. Mr Blaisdell watched a friend struggle using a cumber stone Austrian made lighter. Although the lighter worked well in the wind, the lighters appearance was a disaster!

Mr Blaisdell decided that he would redesign the Austrian lighter that he had seen. Then the new redesigned lighter came to be the first ever Zippo lighter, and is displayed at the Zippo case museum in Bradford. This lighter was produced in 1933 and was sold to the public for $1.95 each. And from this first ever Zippo lighter Mr Blaisdell backed his product with the lifetime guarantee ‘It works or we fix it for free!’

The name Zippo was created by the founder of the company Mr Blaisdell, he first liked the name ‘zipper’ but he then changed it to Zippo as he thought that it had more of a modern sound to it. The application for the original Zippo patent was filled on May 17th 1934, and the patent number was given as 2032695, the application was guaranteed on March 3rd 1936.

In the mid 30’s, Bradford’s Kendall refining company placed an order for 500 Zippo lighters! These were thought to be the first company advertised lighters produced by Zippo, these are also highly collectable. Companies still use Zippo lighters as an advertisement and Zippo advertising lighters are among the collectors favourite.

In 1939, World War II had a big effect on Zippo. Due to the Americans entry to the war Zippo stopped the production of the lighters for their consumers. This was done so that the Zippo factory’s and their workers could souly focus on manufacturing for the US military.

This military action led to the production of the steel – case Zippo lighter with a black crackle finish. Millions of American military personal carried a Zippo lighter into war and this then made a significant change to Zippo’s name and then led to make Zippo lighters an American icon! Not only was the company name getting more well known and successful. The fact that nearly every American man in the army was buying a Zippo lighter left Zippo with a very strong financial side, which made it a viable company.

1940’s

When the war ended Zippo went on the road touring the US selling lighters to people in America. As a lot of driving would be involved Mr Blaisdell decided that he wanted to create a car that looked like a Zippo lighter. So of course Mr Blaisdell made this happen, in 1947 the Zippo car was born, and toured around the US selling the world’s most reliable and used lighters!

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