LORE —

LIGHTER

For most of human history, fire was carried rather than created. Before matches or petrol lighters, a household flame was preserved from day to day or rekindled with flint and steel. 

​

The earliest portable fire was torches made from branches wrapped with cloth, moss, or plant fibers and soaked in rendered animal fat, beeswax, pine pitch, or resin. These burned with an open flame and were carried through settlements, mines, forests, and aboard ships. Clay oil lamps, fueled with olive oil, fish oil, or animal fat, appeared in the ancient world and remained in common use for thousands of years.

​

Throughout the Middle Ages and into the eighteenth century, travelers carried tinderboxes containing flint, hardened steel, char cloth, and dry tinder. A spark struck from steel was caught on char cloth before being transferred to kindling and blown into flame.

​

The invention of friction matches in the early nineteenth century greatly reduced the effort required to light a fire. By the late nineteenth century, petrol lighters provided a reusable means of carrying flame in the pocket. During the twentieth century they became common tools for workers, soldiers, sailors, outdoorsmen, and travelers, used to light lanterns, campfires, stoves, candles, and pipes.

​

Among modern petrol lighters, few became as enduring as the Zippo. Introduced in Pennsylvania in 1932, its windproof design, replaceable parts, and lifetime repair transformed an everyday tool into one intended to remain in service for decades. It remains one of the few modern objects still designed to be repaired rather than discarded, reflecting an older tradition in which useful tools were expected to accompany a lifetime of work.