Zippo

I am a proud owner of a Zippo. Its a jet black matte finish, and cost me 33Euro. I bought it from a tobacco show in the centro di Vicenza, at Italy where I spent 9 months on a summer internship.

I can't remember really remember from where I had heard about zippo lighters, I guess it was from my brother... he always knew a lot of stuff about things...

2nd year at college, I saw my first zippo; on the hands of Balwant Godara, aka Ballu or Tau...
He was sitting at Thakurs room, and he fetched out this chrome finished case; I immediately recognized it as a zippo...and since then I have always wanted to have one...

2005 summers found me at Italy, and finally I had enough spare money that I could afford one...
There were lots of choices about the design and colour, but I wanted one that was both unique and simple... hence the black matte finish.

After coming back in July, my brother borrowed it, and used it at IITK till about december, when he came back, and returned it to me. My last semester began at IITD, and somehow within 4 days of my using it at IIT with my friends, it went kaput. I was really really dissapointed. I paid a good sum of money for a product which I thought would last me for a long time, but it died within 4 days of my using it !!! fuck!!! Plus the guilt, that my brother used it for 6 months and it remained scratchless, and I fucked it up in 4 days...!!

I was really dissapointed, with myself, and with zippo.

I couldn't use it for 3 months, but somedays back, Stan told me that the zippo lighter could be opened from the back, and the flint stone can be easily replaced for a mere 10 bucks...
I took the lighter out of the case, removed the brass screw from the base, and withdrew this long brass spring. Aparantly the problem was simply that the flint stone had completely worn off...possibly broken due to some reason. I went to priya and got the flint replaced for a mere 10 bucks and now the lighter works...

On inspection I realize that the mechanism of the zippo is so amazing simple that it just cannot possibly malfunction. Boy, I am truly amazed...hats off to the genius of Mr Zippo.



Zippo History

Zippo originated in a small Pennsylvania town at a time when the United States was in its worst depression in history. The Zippo's story begins at this darkest moment. It all started on one summer evening in 1932, at a dinner dance held at the Bradford Country Club, on a hill on the outskirts of Bradford, Pennsylvania. Attending the dance was George G. Blaisdell. Blaisdell was one of those looking for a new way to make money and so far, he had yet to bump into anything promising.

Mr Zippo (George G. Blaisdell)

Blaisdell, who had been growing tired of the dance and idle talk of politics, went out onto the terrace to have a smoke. There, he saw a friend of his trying to light up a cigarette, taking out of his pocket an unsightly brass lighter that was patently tawdry. The ugly lighter was totally out of place in the hand of the perfectly attired gentleman. The sight of the man trying clumsily to open the lighter's lid was so comical that Blaisdell almost started to laugh. "You're all dressed up. Why don't you get a lighter that looks decent?" blurted Blaisdell. His friend must have thought it was none of Blaisdell business. "It works!" he declared, defensively. Those two words, "It works!” whirled in George Blaisdell's head that night. In these times, everyone must be looking for something that is low-priced, yet sturdy and durable, he thought. No, that isn't so; those things are always sought after, not just in bad times. This lighter business is promising!

Blaisdell immediately obtained the sole U.S. rights from the Austrian lighter manufacturer. To improve its appearance, Blaisdell chrome-plated the lid of the lighter and raised the price to one dollar. He couldn't sell any; he discovered that there were defects in the lighter. Blaisdell was determined to develop a new lighter that would not fail to light. Abandoning the defective Austrian lighter, Blaisdell rented a corner of the second floor of the Rickerson & Pryde, Inc. building on Boylston Street. The Zippo Windproof Lighter sign on the multi-paned windown has become a symbol of Zippo's early days.

Blaisdell paid $10 a month in rent, hired three people, and began to develop a new lighter. He and his team used an electric hot plate for soldering. Everything from the punch press to the welder was second-hand equipment. The total cost of his equipment was $260 at the time. The first thing Blaisdell did was to make the lighter smaller to be able to fit in the palm of the hand, and he incorporated a hinge to hold the lid to the bottom, making it an integral part of the lighter. This enabled the user to open the lighter using only one hand. Blaisdell then placed a wind hood around the wick, he utilized the hood design of the Austrian lighter and named the new product "Zippo".

The original Zippo model was introduced in 1932. This model had a rectangular shape with a protruding hinge holding the lid to the body and three barrels. The following year, the model was shortened by 1/4 inch. The retail price of the original windproof model was $1.95. In the company's ledger at the end of the first month, 82 units were produced and sales were $69.15. To market the new product, Blaisdell came up with the practice of a lifetime warranty, a concept that began with the first Zippo lighter and has remained the same to the present day. The repair and sale of parts after the expiration of the warranty was a major source of the business revenue. Zippo repaired all types of defects without charging a cent. The lighter was returned postpaid within 48 hours with a note reading, "We thank you for the opportunity of serving your lighter". The concept of a lifetime warranty became Zippo's primary marketing scheme.