Collecting Old Lighters A look at the history The history of the lighter or the Ignitors dates back to the early days, when they tried to light a fire. Already in the Stone Age 30,000 to 60,000 years before our time, people began using flint, tinder (flammable material), and pyrite stones. Flints are hard as pebbles from Cretaceous strata. In the photo I have shown such a flint. I took this a few years ago during a stay on R端gen. There are big fields of such flints. The pyrite is a sulfur-bearing rocks from the family of Sulfitgesteine, which is also widely common and often glimmering metallic gold. It is also popularly known as fool's gold. When striking the flint on the pyrite creates a spark, which the scale , dried plant debris and small dry pieces of wood brings to glow. These components make up the quasi "first lighter." Similarly, the old method of producing fire instead of stone beating by frictional heat. Here, hard wood is rubbed on softer wood, known is the turning of hard pieces of wood on soft wood material even at today's indigenous peoples. Later, the Iron Age and the Romans came the fire hitting added by metal (iron). Later this method has been refined so that the metal in a rugged state staggered over which you could then rub the flint or pyrite stone. The scale was then taken out of the sparks coming off the glow. Today this method is called the Pink Lighter, derived from the word "pink" for striking fire. The aforementioned equipment, namely the flint, the scale and the metal for grating were stored in a so-called tinderbox. These were tinderboxes it until 2 World War II, although they had their greatest distribution until 1850. The tinderboxes, which can certainly be among the first modern lighters were, in the 19th Century gradually detached from the matches. The picture on the right, which was kindly donated by Stefan Kamlah shows such tinderboxes from the late 30s of the 20th Century. The combination of stone and metal are today mostly used in cutting or drilling tdiamond . The respective blade sets are "fused" together, however, so metal powder and tiny diamonds together give the extremely hard material. Matches and matchboxes or matchbooks have, however, developed independently from the lighters to an independent collection area so that is why we treat matches or matches in the collection area matchboxes .
Further development in the field of lighters Besides the tinderboxes there were notable developments in the field of chemical lighters, and there were electrically igniting lighters, called F端rstenberger lighters which 18th to the output of
Century were modern and galvanic lighters and Z端ndbandfeuerzeuge around the turn of the century, 19 the 20th Century. The modern as we understand lighter is due to the Austrian scientist Carl Auer von Welsbach: After the discovery of cerium metal, he created an alloy of iron and cerium, which when rubbed produced such a spark that now known today wicks for ignition were brought. The wicks were gasoline, often impregnated alcohol. The effect of the radio shock was so great that, as now, a very short friction to light the wick enough. Cerium you already knew some decades earlier and mixed the metal also known as Pink lighters at the tinderboxes. The merit of catfish Bach was to have found the particular composition of the alloy, which made it possible now to give up the various pieces in the tinderboxes and by the inflammation by means of a very short friction to come together these individual components in ever smaller containers into a single unit . He reported his discovery in 1903 of a patent. Basically functioned Lighters of the early 20th Century as well as our current lighters similar to the The last decades Since its development over 100 years ago is now the cerium flint has claimed. Parallel development went further, however. Already in the 30s from petrol lighters first gas lighters were derived. Petrol was replaced by butane gas. Loads of lighters were produced with gas only after the Second World War with the beginning of the 50s . The development of recent decades is characterized by the shift to electronic lighter, with newer lighters is the spark generated by the piezo electronic ignition. The modern, mass-produced lighters do indeed hardly constitutes collectibles, but they have other qualities. They are among the most popular promotional items, as they are excellent for advertising print and anyone can use them eventually. And because they often are lost, replacement is always welcome, so many companies it every year as order-aways .
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