Gas Under Pressure Operates Lighter (Sep, 1949)
Filed under: Origins — @ 6:01 am
Source: Popular Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Sep, 1949
Buy on Ebay
Tags: smoking
Source: Popular Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Sep, 1949
Buy on Ebay
Tags: smoking
That looks just like a modern butane lighter, but with a MUCH bigger fuel tank.
Gas Under Pressure Operates Lighter
Butane gas under pressure is the fuel used in a new cigarette lighter that yields more than 3000 lights before the tank is empty. A small knob is pushed with the thumb to release the jet of gas before the spark wheel is spun. When the fuel tank is empty, it is replaced with a new unit. The fuel from one tank will burn for three hours. It provides an odor-free flame and a “tasteless” light.
3,000 lights? yeah, right…
Comment by Stannous — August 9, 2007 @ 10:50 am
I went on an obsessive compulsive “best lighter” hunt a couple years ago. From $8 to $80 (even $800), my simple test was failed by anything I tested except ONE lighter. Would it light when wet and (crucially and one would think, simply enough) stay lit with a good flame, upside down. That test was failed by almost every “gift quality” lighters I got my hands on.
This $9 one is the best though:
http://bugstores.com/shop/ligh.....oduct=BSL2
They call them “torch” lighters since they use a palladium catalyst mesh to make the flame “whoosh” very hot instead of just flicker or blow out in the wind. I found that $60 lighters, although having cute shiny folding back head designs, didn’t burn very hot, likely to avoid actually turning one’s cigarette tip to black ash.
This $60 one, which I unproudly own, is junk:
http://2smokecigars.stores.yahoo.net/promliqx.html
Now if you want a Bunsen Burner instead, in this case one that holds a full bottle of drugstore butane, they are available too:
http://shorinternational.com/AlcoholBunsen.htm
http://microtorches.ayay.com/MicroBurners.htm
Comment by NikFromNYC — January 12, 2008 @ 5:37 pm