WEBVTT - The Lighter Side of Tech 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:07.240 Welcome to text Stuff, a production of I Heart Radios 0:00:07.320 --> 0:00:14.320 How Stuff Works. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:14.360 --> 0:00:17.360 I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with 0:00:17.400 --> 0:00:20.480 iHeart Radio and I love all things tech. And today 0:00:21.079 --> 0:00:24.160 we're going to talk about lighters. And this is sort 0:00:24.200 --> 0:00:28.480 of a sequel to our last episode, which was about matches. 0:00:29.160 --> 0:00:33.519 Alimona is not in the studio and I'm happy to 0:00:33.640 --> 0:00:37.320 report that nothing in my line of vision is currently 0:00:37.400 --> 0:00:40.280 on fire. So we're going to pick up where we 0:00:40.440 --> 0:00:43.519 left off in that last episode. And in that episode, 0:00:43.560 --> 0:00:49.320 I described an invention that used chemistry to create a flame, 0:00:49.400 --> 0:00:53.160 to ignite a flame. Now, this particular invention I talked 0:00:53.159 --> 0:00:56.040 about in the last episode is a pretty dangerous contraption. 0:00:56.160 --> 0:01:00.600 It used sulfuric acid, which by itself is dangerous can 0:01:00.640 --> 0:01:04.880 seriously injure and disfigure you. But it was using sulfuric 0:01:04.920 --> 0:01:08.440 acid and zinc in order to generate hydrogen gas, and 0:01:08.560 --> 0:01:13.120 hydrogen gas is also potentially really dangerous. Hydrogen gas is 0:01:13.200 --> 0:01:18.560 lighter than air, but unlike helium, hydrogen is extremely flammable. 0:01:18.800 --> 0:01:22.120 It's the stuff that contributed to the famous Hindenburg disaster. 0:01:22.640 --> 0:01:25.040 But now we're going to switch over to some other 0:01:25.600 --> 0:01:30.560 technologies and developments that made the modern lighter possible. Because, 0:01:30.600 --> 0:01:33.520 if you remember in that last episode, though the version 0:01:33.560 --> 0:01:37.600 I just mentioned was not really practical, they sold a 0:01:37.600 --> 0:01:40.720 few thousand of them, but it wasn't something that could 0:01:40.720 --> 0:01:43.039 easily be used, and it certainly wasn't something you could 0:01:43.160 --> 0:01:47.640 carry around in your pocket. So our next advance in 0:01:47.680 --> 0:01:51.440 the making of fire would date back to the beginning 0:01:51.560 --> 0:01:54.920 of the twentieth century, so the early nineteen hundreds. That's 0:01:54.920 --> 0:01:59.920 when an Austrian scientist named Baron carl Aur von Velba 0:02:00.720 --> 0:02:05.160 was working with some mixtures of rare earth elements to 0:02:05.240 --> 0:02:09.000 see what you know, they would do, so what scientists 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:13.200 do sometimes just trying stuff. Well, one of those elements 0:02:13.200 --> 0:02:17.079 he was working with was a metal called serrium c 0:02:17.520 --> 0:02:21.880 E R I U M, and it's a relatively soft metal. 0:02:22.080 --> 0:02:25.880 It's silvery white in color, but it does tarnish when 0:02:25.880 --> 0:02:28.480 it's exposed to air, so it doesn't stay silvery white 0:02:28.520 --> 0:02:31.360 for very long. And it's soft enough then you can 0:02:31.400 --> 0:02:33.920 actually cut this stuff with a knife, so it's a 0:02:33.919 --> 0:02:40.679 pretty soft metal. Velbot discovered that creating an alloy, which is, 0:02:40.800 --> 0:02:44.960 you know, a combination of different metals and other components. 0:02:45.120 --> 0:02:48.000 But if you create an alloy using iron and cyrium, 0:02:48.080 --> 0:02:52.840 it was actually mostly iron about seventy iron cirium that 0:02:53.200 --> 0:02:56.440 you would create a substance that could ignite sparks if 0:02:56.440 --> 0:03:00.400 it was struck or scratched by a harder material. And 0:03:00.480 --> 0:03:04.280 he called this stuff pharaoh cyrium, and he classified it 0:03:04.760 --> 0:03:08.080 as a mish battle, which is sort of a Germanic 0:03:08.200 --> 0:03:12.080 word that essentially means mixed metal or alloy. These days, 0:03:12.440 --> 0:03:16.120 pharao cyrium and mish metal has a slightly different spelling. 0:03:16.160 --> 0:03:20.240 Typically are frequently used to describe the same thing. Also, 0:03:20.280 --> 0:03:22.400 a lot of folks will refer to this stuff as 0:03:22.840 --> 0:03:27.120 flint in modern lighters, but that is misleading. Flint is 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:30.960 something very different, and this merits a quick explanation so 0:03:31.000 --> 0:03:33.799 that you guys can understand and appreciate the difference between 0:03:34.320 --> 0:03:37.920 flint and pharaoh cirium. Alright, so let's start off with quartz. 0:03:38.760 --> 0:03:44.040 This stuff is the most abundant mineral found at Earth's surface, 0:03:44.520 --> 0:03:49.720 so we humans have tons of experience with quartz. If 0:03:49.760 --> 0:03:54.000 you take one part silicon to two parts oxygen, that's quartz. 0:03:54.480 --> 0:03:57.120 And it's a durable mineral, and it has some really 0:03:57.280 --> 0:04:01.480 super interesting properties. It's heat resistant, so it's a good 0:04:01.480 --> 0:04:04.440 component to use in materials where you want to have 0:04:04.480 --> 0:04:07.040 something that can stand up to great amounts of heat. 0:04:07.240 --> 0:04:13.240 It also has a really interesting quirky phenomena that's associated 0:04:13.280 --> 0:04:16.480 with it and some other materials. If you exert a 0:04:16.480 --> 0:04:21.760 mechanical stress on quartz, in other words, if you hit it, 0:04:21.760 --> 0:04:26.240 it then accumulates an electrical charge, or if you expose 0:04:26.320 --> 0:04:30.560 quarts to an electrical charge, it will exert an internal 0:04:30.600 --> 0:04:34.679 mechanical strain. It will vibrate. So you can make quartz 0:04:34.760 --> 0:04:39.520 pulse at a consistent frequency by applying an electrical charge 0:04:39.640 --> 0:04:42.919 to it, which is why quartz crystals are used in 0:04:43.000 --> 0:04:49.120 analog watches and clocks. The predictable, repeatable vibration that frequency 0:04:49.200 --> 0:04:51.760 is always going to be the same is a great 0:04:51.760 --> 0:04:54.840 way to keep track of the passing of time, and 0:04:54.920 --> 0:05:00.120 so you use that as sort of the uh, the 0:05:00.520 --> 0:05:05.160 foundation for all the other time keeping elements. But this 0:05:05.240 --> 0:05:09.800 is not an episode about clockwork. So we'll get back 0:05:09.839 --> 0:05:11.840 to piece of electric because it will play a part 0:05:12.279 --> 0:05:15.039 later on in our episode, but let's leave that off 0:05:15.040 --> 0:05:18.480 for now. Now. More than that, quartz comes in many 0:05:18.520 --> 0:05:23.960 different varieties and one of those varieties is flint. Flint 0:05:24.000 --> 0:05:27.000 contains a lot of impurities, so it doesn't look like 0:05:27.279 --> 0:05:29.760 pure quartz at all. It doesn't look like what we 0:05:29.839 --> 0:05:33.120 think of when we think of the word quartz. Flint 0:05:33.200 --> 0:05:36.000 tends to be dark gray in color, but it can 0:05:36.120 --> 0:05:39.440 have other colors in it as well, like brown or red, 0:05:39.560 --> 0:05:43.560 sometimes even whi er yellow, and typically is much closer 0:05:43.600 --> 0:05:46.080 to opaque than what we think of when we think 0:05:46.080 --> 0:05:48.760 of quarts. We tend to think of something that's at 0:05:48.800 --> 0:05:52.760 least translucent with quartz, but flint tends to be almost opaque. 0:05:53.080 --> 0:05:57.040 And like courts in general, flint has no flat surfaces 0:05:57.120 --> 0:06:02.599 of internal weakness, no Planer weakness inside court flint or cowards. 0:06:03.040 --> 0:06:07.560 That means that you do not observe cleavage with quartz 0:06:07.720 --> 0:06:11.400 or flint, which is, you know, actual geological kind of 0:06:11.520 --> 0:06:14.599 term here. So in other words, if you were to 0:06:14.880 --> 0:06:18.000 strike this material hard enough to break it, you would 0:06:18.000 --> 0:06:23.359 see what's called a conchoidal fracture, that's a smoothly curving fracture. 0:06:23.480 --> 0:06:28.120 Surface Glass is a type of material that has conchoidal 0:06:28.240 --> 0:06:34.039 fractures as opposed to Planer fractures or cleavage. By breaking 0:06:34.120 --> 0:06:39.279 quartz or flint in very precise ways. You can fashion tough, 0:06:40.000 --> 0:06:44.200 sharp objects, stuff that can stand up to somewear and tear, 0:06:44.440 --> 0:06:46.600 and it can have a very sharp edge to it, 0:06:46.800 --> 0:06:50.440 which is why flint was a valuable material in early 0:06:50.520 --> 0:06:54.560 human history. It could be chipped to shape into stuff 0:06:54.560 --> 0:06:59.200 like arrowheads spear points, as well as into cutting tools 0:06:59.279 --> 0:07:03.880 like access is now getting back to making fires. The 0:07:03.920 --> 0:07:07.240 property we're interested in with flint is that if you 0:07:07.240 --> 0:07:11.800 were to strike flint against iron, you can create sparks. 0:07:11.800 --> 0:07:15.120 But why is that, Well, it's not because of the 0:07:15.160 --> 0:07:18.840 flint necessarily, it's actually more because of the irons. The 0:07:18.960 --> 0:07:24.720 iron is pyrophoric, which means it's a material that will 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:31.520 ignite under room temperature. And that probably sounds really weird, right. 0:07:31.680 --> 0:07:34.920 I Mean, we've all come into contact with iron, We've 0:07:34.920 --> 0:07:37.960 all seen iron objects, and most of the time I 0:07:37.960 --> 0:07:42.120 think we could agree that's not you know, currently on fire. 0:07:42.640 --> 0:07:46.560 So what actually gives here? What's happening and why do 0:07:46.600 --> 0:07:49.880 I say that iron is pyrophoric. We'll see when iron 0:07:50.040 --> 0:07:54.360 encounters air, it begins to oxidize, and with iron, that 0:07:54.440 --> 0:07:58.080 means it develops a thin layer of iron oxide on 0:07:58.160 --> 0:08:01.520 the outside surface of the iron itself. Iron oxide is 0:08:01.560 --> 0:08:05.920 known by another name rust. So the rusting process is 0:08:05.960 --> 0:08:10.440 a chemical reaction, and it's an exothermic chemical reaction, if 0:08:10.440 --> 0:08:13.960 you remember from our last episode. An exothermic reaction is 0:08:14.040 --> 0:08:17.880 one that in the process of this chemical reaction going on, 0:08:18.240 --> 0:08:22.200 releases heat. But if you're talking about any appreciable amount 0:08:22.240 --> 0:08:24.760 of iron, as in more than just a tiny speck 0:08:24.800 --> 0:08:28.920 of the stuff, that heat dissipates pretty quickly. The relative 0:08:29.200 --> 0:08:33.400 mass of the iron is great enough that the heat 0:08:33.480 --> 0:08:36.880 becomes a non factor. And this is really important. We 0:08:36.920 --> 0:08:41.240 have to consider the ratio of a any given amount 0:08:41.240 --> 0:08:45.600 of irons mass relative to the surface area that is 0:08:45.720 --> 0:08:49.040 exposed to the air. If the iron has more than 0:08:49.080 --> 0:08:52.000 a little mass, that heat can dissipate through the rest 0:08:52.000 --> 0:08:53.840 of the hunk of iron. You know, all the iron 0:08:54.080 --> 0:08:56.760 atoms that are not exposed to air will just sort 0:08:56.800 --> 0:09:00.000 of absorb that heat and nothing else happens apart from 0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:04.400 the external surfaces rusting. And once they rust, they've got 0:09:04.400 --> 0:09:07.640 this sort of protective layer, and thus the rest of 0:09:07.679 --> 0:09:11.720 the iron atoms aren't exposed to oxygen anymore. Rusting really 0:09:11.760 --> 0:09:14.760 is just a similar process to burning. That burning is 0:09:14.760 --> 0:09:18.160 also a chemical reaction. In which material oxidizes. It is 0:09:18.240 --> 0:09:21.600 just that burning happens a lot faster and with you know, 0:09:21.800 --> 0:09:25.920 flames and stuff. When you strike iron with a flint, 0:09:26.800 --> 0:09:30.280 the flint is actually hard enough and typically sharp enough 0:09:30.760 --> 0:09:34.800 to cause very tiny shards of iron to shear off 0:09:35.040 --> 0:09:39.680 of whatever it is you're striking. While any part of 0:09:39.720 --> 0:09:43.559 those tiny pieces that were previously exposed to oxygen still 0:09:43.600 --> 0:09:47.200 have an iron oxide coating, the rest of those small 0:09:47.240 --> 0:09:51.240 pieces haven't been touched by oxygen at all, So these 0:09:51.280 --> 0:09:54.360 are pure iron with no iron oxide arm and as 0:09:54.400 --> 0:09:58.439 soon as that surface makes contact with oxygen, the oxidizing 0:09:58.480 --> 0:10:03.320 process begins immediately. So now we're talking about iron in 0:10:03.360 --> 0:10:07.959 which the ratio of surface area of exposed iron compared 0:10:08.000 --> 0:10:11.600 to the mass of that iron has been flipped. It's 0:10:11.800 --> 0:10:14.800 very little mass, and much of it is exposed to oxygen. 0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:18.000 The mass of the shards is so low that it 0:10:18.040 --> 0:10:23.640 cannot dissipate that heat, So the exposed surface oxidizes at 0:10:23.679 --> 0:10:26.679 a rate faster than heat can dissipate. So since the 0:10:26.720 --> 0:10:31.040 heat can't dissipate, it builds up. It builds up super 0:10:31.080 --> 0:10:34.320 super fast, and those tiny shards of iron get hot, 0:10:34.559 --> 0:10:38.520 hot enough to glow and to reach the ignition temperature 0:10:38.880 --> 0:10:41.760 of some other fuel source, like the tinder of a 0:10:41.840 --> 0:10:44.600 camp fire. That all happens in the blink of an eye, 0:10:44.679 --> 0:10:47.520 and that is a spark. The spark you see are 0:10:47.520 --> 0:10:51.280 these tiny pieces of iron that are oxidizing and they're 0:10:51.280 --> 0:10:54.480 generating so much heat that they cannot dissipate that the 0:10:54.640 --> 0:10:59.160 metal itself begins to glow from that heat. So when 0:10:59.200 --> 0:11:03.640 you strike iron against flint, you're creating tiny flying shards 0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:08.840 of white hot iron particles, and that's why you're able 0:11:08.880 --> 0:11:12.360 to use those to light a camp fire. For example. 0:11:13.520 --> 0:11:17.319 Flint was also used in early firearms. Flint would be 0:11:17.440 --> 0:11:20.320 in the striking arm of a gun like a flint 0:11:20.360 --> 0:11:24.319 lock rifle or a flint lock pistol, and so you 0:11:24.320 --> 0:11:29.200 would have this little hammer that would have flint attached 0:11:29.240 --> 0:11:32.760 to it, and you would have a little cup, essentially 0:11:32.800 --> 0:11:36.720 a little receptacle cup, and the when you pull the trigger, 0:11:37.200 --> 0:11:40.560 the hammer would come down and strike inside the cup. 0:11:40.800 --> 0:11:43.520 It would hit another surface that would be made out 0:11:43.559 --> 0:11:46.439 of pyrite, which is a mix of iron and silicon. 0:11:46.880 --> 0:11:49.760 The collision would create sparks, which ignites a small amount 0:11:49.760 --> 0:11:53.120 of gunpowder. It leads into the chamber of the firearm 0:11:53.320 --> 0:11:57.000 ignites a larger amount of gunpowder, which causes an explosion 0:11:57.160 --> 0:11:59.760 and then propels a projectile out of the weapon. So 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:03.800 that's where you get your flintlock pistols and your flintlock rifles. Now, 0:12:03.840 --> 0:12:08.280 technically you don't absolutely have to use flint. If you 0:12:08.320 --> 0:12:11.160 want to use iron to generate sparks. You really just 0:12:11.240 --> 0:12:14.760 need something that's hard enough and sharp enough to shear 0:12:14.800 --> 0:12:17.800 off those tiny particles of iron. That's the secret. It's 0:12:17.840 --> 0:12:21.640 not the flint, it's really the iron. Flint happens to 0:12:21.760 --> 0:12:25.280 have that kind of hardness to it naturally, and there's 0:12:25.320 --> 0:12:28.720 a whole lot of flint that's available readily out in 0:12:28.760 --> 0:12:31.400 the world. It's close to the surface of the planet, 0:12:31.440 --> 0:12:34.320 so it's easy to find, so it's a very common 0:12:34.360 --> 0:12:38.760 pairing with iron or steel. Also, remember steel itself is 0:12:38.800 --> 0:12:42.320 an alloy of iron and carbon and sometimes some other 0:12:42.360 --> 0:12:48.040 stuff too, and carbon steel is mostly iron like iron, 0:12:48.640 --> 0:12:51.920 and tends to be fairly brittle as far as steel goes, 0:12:52.160 --> 0:12:55.920 so it's frequently used in flint and steel kits. In fact, 0:12:56.400 --> 0:13:00.000 steel is typically better than playin old iron is because 0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:03.120 as iron has a tendency to bend rather than break 0:13:04.240 --> 0:13:06.520 when it's struck by a harder surface, So you want 0:13:06.559 --> 0:13:09.000 something that's a little more brittle that will shear off 0:13:09.040 --> 0:13:12.440 a bit. Because bending doesn't produce sparks, It just you know, 0:13:12.559 --> 0:13:16.640 dentse it. Adding carbon makes iron less bindy. So in general, 0:13:16.679 --> 0:13:19.600 the harder the steel and the sharper the flint, the 0:13:19.679 --> 0:13:21.880 better sparks you're gonna get when you strike the two 0:13:21.880 --> 0:13:25.640 of them together. Also, if you've ever seen anyone use 0:13:25.679 --> 0:13:29.520 a machine like a grinder to shape iron or steel, 0:13:29.559 --> 0:13:33.400 you've likely seen showers of sparks that come down as 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:36.160 a result. Those sparks come from the same process I 0:13:36.240 --> 0:13:40.280 just described. Tiny fragments of pure iron are glowing white 0:13:40.320 --> 0:13:44.480 hot as they oxidize upon exposure to the air. All right, 0:13:44.520 --> 0:13:47.880 but what about pharaoh cyrium. I mentioned that earlier. Well 0:13:47.920 --> 0:13:52.280 for starters, pharaoh Cyrium is not a mineral like flint is. 0:13:52.760 --> 0:13:54.679 And to be fair, some people don't refer to flint 0:13:54.720 --> 0:13:57.000 as a mineral, they just call it a rock. But 0:13:57.040 --> 0:14:00.640 pharaoh cirium isn't a mineral or a rock. It's an alloy. 0:14:00.679 --> 0:14:04.040 It's made up of two metals, and the combination of 0:14:04.080 --> 0:14:07.200 iron and syrium turned out to be really useful. You've 0:14:07.200 --> 0:14:10.920 got iron, which will oxidize rapidly when exposed to air, 0:14:11.200 --> 0:14:14.079 and you've got cirium, which has a low ignition temperature, 0:14:14.240 --> 0:14:17.600 so that oxidizing process will ignite the serrium and make 0:14:17.640 --> 0:14:20.840 the sparks more practical, makes it more likely that you're 0:14:20.880 --> 0:14:23.640 able to use them to do something like light of fire. 0:14:24.240 --> 0:14:29.360 And after he first developed pharaoh cirium, Welsbach would tweak 0:14:29.520 --> 0:14:32.800 this alloy to try and fine tune it to make 0:14:32.840 --> 0:14:36.160 it more effective as sort of a spark making fire 0:14:36.240 --> 0:14:40.520 starting material. He discovered that adding another soft metal called 0:14:40.680 --> 0:14:45.040 lanthanum in very small amounts meant that Pharao cirium would 0:14:45.080 --> 0:14:49.320 create brighter sparks and thus be even more effective as 0:14:49.680 --> 0:14:53.000 a way of starting fires. Now, in most lighters, the 0:14:53.080 --> 0:14:56.560 quote unquote flint in the lighter is actually a piece 0:14:56.600 --> 0:15:00.760 of pharaoh cirium. It's not flint, it's pharaoh cirium. And 0:15:00.800 --> 0:15:04.000 then most lighters use some sort of wheel made out 0:15:04.000 --> 0:15:08.320 of a harder material like steel that's a striker. So 0:15:08.400 --> 0:15:12.520 turning the steel wheel causes the wheel to rub or 0:15:12.640 --> 0:15:17.240 strike against the pharaoh cyrium quote unquote flint quickly, and 0:15:17.280 --> 0:15:21.080 that throws off sparks. There's usually some other piece of 0:15:21.120 --> 0:15:25.360 the lighter that holds the pharaoh cirium to a positive 0:15:25.400 --> 0:15:29.440 pressure against the wheel so that it remains in contact 0:15:29.480 --> 0:15:31.880 with the wheel even as you start to wear down 0:15:31.920 --> 0:15:34.640 the pharaoh cirium. So there's usually some sort of spring 0:15:34.920 --> 0:15:38.880 or something that exerts pressure on that pharaoh cirium to 0:15:38.920 --> 0:15:41.240 make sure it remains in contact with the wheel, because 0:15:41.240 --> 0:15:44.000 if the pharaoh cirium loses contact with the wheel, the 0:15:44.000 --> 0:15:46.880 wheel will just spend freely. You won't get any sparks 0:15:46.880 --> 0:15:49.880 at all because the material that gives off the sparks 0:15:50.000 --> 0:15:54.040 isn't in contact with the striking surface anymore. Bells box 0:15:54.160 --> 0:15:58.760 discovery created an alternative to relying on chemistry to generate 0:15:58.760 --> 0:16:02.280 a flame. The arc would do it if only you 0:16:02.360 --> 0:16:05.320 have a supply of fuel. So one of the early 0:16:05.360 --> 0:16:08.120 inventions to use pharaoh sirium as a way to start 0:16:08.120 --> 0:16:11.760 fires was called the Pisto lighter. I actually have an 0:16:11.760 --> 0:16:14.680 outtake where I said pistoleter because it's spelled like leader, 0:16:15.160 --> 0:16:18.120 but lighter. It's a lighter. Uh is from a company 0:16:18.160 --> 0:16:22.120 called Ronson, and it was called the Pisto lighter because 0:16:22.160 --> 0:16:24.320 it had sort of a pistol grip. In fact, it 0:16:24.360 --> 0:16:27.440 looked kind of like a little handgun, a little pistol, 0:16:28.000 --> 0:16:31.960 but instead of shooting bullets, this thing shoots sparks. Ronson 0:16:32.080 --> 0:16:34.480 would actually play an important part in the early history 0:16:34.480 --> 0:16:36.520 of lighters, so it makes sense to talk about them 0:16:36.520 --> 0:16:39.840 for just a minute. The company was founded just before 0:16:39.880 --> 0:16:43.760 the turn of the twentieth century by Louis Vincent Ironson 0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:51.320 or Ronson, h Leopold Hertzig and Max Hecked, though at 0:16:51.320 --> 0:16:53.840 the time the company they called they formed was called 0:16:53.880 --> 0:16:57.800 the Art Metal Works, and the company mainly made stuff 0:16:57.800 --> 0:17:01.520 out of iron, ranging from lamps to decorative items. But 0:17:01.560 --> 0:17:04.560 Aaronson was a bit of a chemist and an engineer, 0:17:04.560 --> 0:17:06.840 and he kept liking to, you know, to to to 0:17:06.920 --> 0:17:10.200 fiddle and and mess with stuff and try and figure 0:17:10.200 --> 0:17:13.320 out different ways of accomplishing things. He worked on creating 0:17:13.400 --> 0:17:18.399 better matches before he started making you know, lighters, and 0:17:18.560 --> 0:17:21.280 UH we talked about some of those attempts in the 0:17:21.320 --> 0:17:24.080 last episode, not about his work in particular, but the 0:17:24.080 --> 0:17:27.560 attempt to move away from things like white phosphorus as 0:17:27.640 --> 0:17:33.400 your active component in a match. While n the company, 0:17:33.520 --> 0:17:37.800 UH introduced the pistol lighter, and inside this lighter was 0:17:38.200 --> 0:17:42.440 a length of pharaoh syrium um like a surface of 0:17:42.480 --> 0:17:45.800 pharao syrium inside what would be the barrel of this pistol, 0:17:46.200 --> 0:17:48.760 and then also inside of it was a spring loaded 0:17:48.960 --> 0:17:53.399 file of harder material, and so you could pull back 0:17:53.440 --> 0:17:57.800 on this and it would have the spring compress and 0:17:57.840 --> 0:18:00.720 a little catch would be put in place to hold 0:18:00.760 --> 0:18:03.600 the spring there, and the file would be in its 0:18:03.920 --> 0:18:07.640 h back position. You'd pull a trigger that would release 0:18:07.680 --> 0:18:11.560 the spring, and the spring would thus expand and would 0:18:11.560 --> 0:18:14.919 push the file against the pharaoh serrium inside the barrel 0:18:15.000 --> 0:18:18.480 of this pistol lighter, and sparks would fly out the end. 0:18:18.600 --> 0:18:22.040 As a result. The pistol lighter didn't create a sustained 0:18:22.240 --> 0:18:24.760 flame like a modern lighter. It was more of a 0:18:24.800 --> 0:18:27.680 spark stick type of thing. So the idea was you 0:18:27.720 --> 0:18:32.159 would aim this at, say the tinder for a camp fire, 0:18:32.359 --> 0:18:35.520 or maybe a motor engine. At the time, there were 0:18:36.000 --> 0:18:39.240 cars that and and motors that required you to have 0:18:39.960 --> 0:18:43.920 uh an actual external ignition source to to make them work. 0:18:44.880 --> 0:18:47.960 Scary times, but if all went well, when you pull 0:18:48.040 --> 0:18:51.159 the trigger, the sparks from the pistol lighter would ignite 0:18:51.240 --> 0:18:54.040 whatever it was you were aiming. At and you would 0:18:54.040 --> 0:18:57.760 have your camp fire started, or your motor would begin 0:18:58.480 --> 0:19:00.159 if it didn't work on the first past, and you 0:19:00.200 --> 0:19:03.639 could pull the file back to the starting position, compressing 0:19:03.680 --> 0:19:06.480 the spring, activating the catch, and you'd be ready for 0:19:06.520 --> 0:19:09.760 a second go of it. To create a sustained flame, 0:19:10.200 --> 0:19:13.400 a lighter would need an additional component, one of the 0:19:13.440 --> 0:19:17.840 three components that make up the fire triangle, and that 0:19:17.840 --> 0:19:20.960 would be fuel. I'll explain more in just a moment, 0:19:21.000 --> 0:19:30.800 but first let's take a quick break. All right, we're 0:19:30.840 --> 0:19:35.320 back now. There are three main components that I want 0:19:35.359 --> 0:19:39.720 to focus on with the early lighters that could create 0:19:39.760 --> 0:19:45.000 a sustained flame. One is the piece of faro syrium, which, 0:19:45.080 --> 0:19:48.360 as I just mentioned, frequently gets referred to as the flint, 0:19:48.480 --> 0:19:51.440 even though flint and pharao sirium are very different things, 0:19:52.040 --> 0:19:55.560 and technically it's again not flint. In flint and steel 0:19:55.800 --> 0:19:59.040 that gives off the sparks when you're striking them together, 0:19:59.119 --> 0:20:02.040 it's really the steel, not the flint. If you slam 0:20:02.080 --> 0:20:04.800 two pieces of flint together, you can sometimes get sparks 0:20:04.840 --> 0:20:07.280 because sometimes you have trace other elements in there that 0:20:07.560 --> 0:20:11.120 will create them. But the second component is the striker, 0:20:11.480 --> 0:20:13.960 which in many lighters is a wheel that has a 0:20:14.080 --> 0:20:18.600 ribbed outer edge and that is pressed against the pharao serium, 0:20:18.680 --> 0:20:21.159 or rather I should say the pharaoh cerium is pressed 0:20:21.200 --> 0:20:24.679 against the wheel. And so typically you would put like 0:20:24.760 --> 0:20:27.480 your thumb on the wheel, for example, and and you 0:20:27.480 --> 0:20:31.080 would spin it the wheel pretty quickly by bringing your 0:20:31.080 --> 0:20:34.800 thumb down, and that would end up striking against the 0:20:34.800 --> 0:20:38.399 pharao serrium and then you get a spark. The third 0:20:38.440 --> 0:20:42.000 component is a wick, as in a wick like like 0:20:42.080 --> 0:20:44.560 what you would find in a candle, and the purpose 0:20:44.640 --> 0:20:47.760 of the wick is to transfer small amounts of some 0:20:47.840 --> 0:20:51.640 sort of fuel such as uh nuff the from a 0:20:51.680 --> 0:20:54.520 fuel container section of the lighter to the area where 0:20:54.520 --> 0:20:57.679 the wheel and the pharaoh cerium are generating sparks. And 0:20:57.760 --> 0:21:00.200 clearly you want that to be a separate area from 0:21:00.240 --> 0:21:03.760 the main source of fuel. Otherwise you're being igniting all 0:21:03.800 --> 0:21:06.960 the fuel in one go, and that would be wasteful 0:21:07.000 --> 0:21:09.960 and probably pretty darned dangerous. So the wick is sort 0:21:10.000 --> 0:21:12.919 of like a fuel highway. It's very similar to the 0:21:12.920 --> 0:21:16.080 way wick works with a candle. So let's talk about 0:21:16.080 --> 0:21:19.800 the physics involved in that for a second, because candles 0:21:19.800 --> 0:21:22.520 are something I never really thought about in the sense 0:21:22.560 --> 0:21:25.840 of how do those work? I mean, why would you 0:21:26.480 --> 0:21:29.879 even bother encasing a wick in wax? Why not just 0:21:29.960 --> 0:21:32.720 burn the wick material? What the heck is going on here? 0:21:32.960 --> 0:21:36.160 All right? So, when you light a candle, you light 0:21:36.280 --> 0:21:39.359 the end of the exposed wick, and that part is 0:21:39.400 --> 0:21:42.960 easy to understand, right. It starts to burn, So the 0:21:43.000 --> 0:21:45.800 wick itself is starting to burn, and the heat from 0:21:45.840 --> 0:21:49.800 that burning wick melts wax at that end of the candle. 0:21:49.840 --> 0:21:52.240 At the top of the candle, the wick starts to 0:21:52.280 --> 0:21:57.320 absorb that liquid wax, so it wicks away the wax 0:21:57.480 --> 0:22:02.399 into the wick itself. The lick it wax. If you 0:22:02.440 --> 0:22:04.120 were to try and light it on fire, it would 0:22:04.119 --> 0:22:07.120 only burn if you were using really high temperatures, far 0:22:07.200 --> 0:22:10.639 hotter than what a burning wick would be able to create. 0:22:11.119 --> 0:22:14.520 The liquid wax in the wick continues to heat up 0:22:14.880 --> 0:22:18.960 and it starts to vaporize. And while liquid wax only 0:22:18.960 --> 0:22:22.080 burns its super high temperatures, wax vapor is different. It's 0:22:22.080 --> 0:22:25.240 flammable at the right temperature of of a candle. So 0:22:25.600 --> 0:22:29.720 the vaporizing wax is what you're actually seeing burn when 0:22:29.720 --> 0:22:32.359 a candle is burning, and the vaporizing wax also has 0:22:32.400 --> 0:22:36.760 the effect of cooling the wick underneath. As it vaporizes, 0:22:37.080 --> 0:22:40.800 it's carrying heat away, so the wick doesn't just burn away. 0:22:40.840 --> 0:22:44.679 That's why the wick can remain serviceable even as the 0:22:44.720 --> 0:22:48.199 candle continues to burn. It doesn't just burn up and 0:22:48.280 --> 0:22:51.520 become useless. So the wick remains a conduit for the 0:22:51.600 --> 0:22:54.240 liquid wax. So if you just set fire to a wick, 0:22:54.280 --> 0:22:57.240 if it didn't have any candle around it, it would 0:22:57.280 --> 0:22:59.159 just burn up pretty quickly and then you'd be in 0:22:59.160 --> 0:23:02.240 the dark again. But a candle isn't burning up the 0:23:02.280 --> 0:23:06.879 wick as its primary fuel. It's burning up the wax, right, 0:23:07.040 --> 0:23:11.320 So a lighter wick serves the same purpose as a 0:23:11.400 --> 0:23:15.640 candle wick, which is again to convey fuel through absorption 0:23:15.800 --> 0:23:18.960 or wicking from the fuel container to the combustion area. 0:23:19.359 --> 0:23:22.960 The fuel for early lighters was, as I said, neftha 0:23:23.440 --> 0:23:26.640 or nf thea uh. That's a term that originates from 0:23:26.680 --> 0:23:31.560 the Middle East, particularly around Azerbaijan and Iran, and it 0:23:31.600 --> 0:23:35.600 was used to describe a particularly volatile type of petroleum 0:23:35.720 --> 0:23:40.040 found in those regions, But then it would get applied 0:23:40.080 --> 0:23:42.919 to all sorts of different stuff after that, Like it 0:23:43.000 --> 0:23:46.960 was described as early as the first century by smarty 0:23:47.040 --> 0:23:50.600 pants eggheads like Pliny the Elder, but later folks would 0:23:50.880 --> 0:23:53.320 use that term to refer to all sorts of different stuff, 0:23:53.320 --> 0:23:56.560 and it confused the matter, like alchemists and scholars in 0:23:56.600 --> 0:23:58.800 the Middle Ages would use it to describe pretty much 0:23:58.800 --> 0:24:02.200 any liquid with a low boiling point. For our purposes, 0:24:02.400 --> 0:24:07.400 we're talking about a hydrocarbon fuel. In nineteen twelve, the 0:24:07.520 --> 0:24:11.840 Ronson Company introduced the Wonder light, and unlike the pistol light, 0:24:12.680 --> 0:24:17.040 this lighter actually contained fuel and used a wick so 0:24:17.119 --> 0:24:20.240 that the sparks would ignite the fuel that was in 0:24:20.280 --> 0:24:24.080 the wig and create a sort of permanent match. That's 0:24:24.119 --> 0:24:26.520 what they called it. Now, it was much easier to 0:24:26.640 --> 0:24:29.760 light stuff like lamps and candles that way. You weren't 0:24:29.760 --> 0:24:32.879 just shooting sparks. You had a sustained flame and you 0:24:32.920 --> 0:24:35.639 could use that to light other stuff. And there may 0:24:35.680 --> 0:24:39.000 well have been other lighters in a similar vein of 0:24:39.040 --> 0:24:42.200 this type uh that might have even been invented before 0:24:42.200 --> 0:24:44.480 the wonder Light. But as it turns out, this is 0:24:44.480 --> 0:24:46.639 one of those topics where it's really hard to find 0:24:46.680 --> 0:24:50.000 a definitive history on the subject, and it's also difficult 0:24:50.000 --> 0:24:53.520 to trace back who created the very first version of 0:24:53.600 --> 0:24:58.760 whatever particular incarnation you're looking at. But in ninety six 0:24:59.000 --> 0:25:03.200 Ronson introduced a super cool lighter, a pocket lighter called 0:25:03.280 --> 0:25:07.600 the Banjo. This lighter had a button essentially a lever. 0:25:08.200 --> 0:25:10.440 So imagine a little lighter where you've got a lever 0:25:10.560 --> 0:25:12.480 and you push down on the lever, and when you 0:25:12.520 --> 0:25:14.920 do that, it has sort of a double action result. 0:25:15.320 --> 0:25:18.840 One is that this pushing down would also turn a 0:25:18.960 --> 0:25:22.080 striking wheel that would rub up against some pharaoh cyrium 0:25:22.280 --> 0:25:25.080 and thus create a spark. So pushing down on the 0:25:25.720 --> 0:25:27.800 lever you get a spark out of it. But the 0:25:27.840 --> 0:25:31.560 other effect was that it lifted a cap off of 0:25:31.760 --> 0:25:35.080 the wick for this lighter. So when the lever is 0:25:35.119 --> 0:25:38.240 in the up position, you know, unpressed, the cap is down. 0:25:38.560 --> 0:25:42.640 Pushing down on the lever creates the spark and reveals 0:25:42.680 --> 0:25:45.120 the wick, and the same go so the spark can 0:25:45.200 --> 0:25:48.000 hit the wick that's got fuel on it, and then 0:25:48.160 --> 0:25:51.119 the wick can light. Letting go of the button, as 0:25:51.160 --> 0:25:53.119 long as you hold the button, the light is the 0:25:53.200 --> 0:25:56.400 light still remains, the flame is still lit. But leting 0:25:56.400 --> 0:25:58.760 go to the button means the cap comes down and 0:25:58.840 --> 0:26:02.320 it extinguishes the fire because it cuts off the supply 0:26:02.400 --> 0:26:05.359 of oxygen, which is again one of the three things 0:26:05.400 --> 0:26:08.760 we need in order to sustain a fire. You need 0:26:08.800 --> 0:26:11.320 the fuel, you need the heat, and you need an oxidizer. 0:26:11.440 --> 0:26:14.280 So you remove the oxidizer, the flame goes out. This 0:26:14.400 --> 0:26:18.000 made the Banjo the first automatic pocket lighter in the world. 0:26:18.560 --> 0:26:23.400 In the company would release a tabletop version of the banjo, 0:26:23.520 --> 0:26:25.800 so this was one that you would not carry around 0:26:25.880 --> 0:26:29.399 with you in your pocket. Uh. It would be a 0:26:29.440 --> 0:26:32.400 piece on a desk or a table that you would 0:26:32.480 --> 0:26:35.800 use to light various things, typically cigarettes. I don't like 0:26:35.840 --> 0:26:39.960 talking about that because I don't like cigarettes, but that 0:26:40.040 --> 0:26:44.040 was the typical application of the time. As for fuel, well, 0:26:44.240 --> 0:26:47.200 I found a manual on how to care and refuel 0:26:47.400 --> 0:26:50.639 a Banjo lighter, and boy howdy did it raise my 0:26:50.680 --> 0:26:54.480 eyebrows because according to the manual, you could use quote 0:26:54.840 --> 0:27:02.439 high grade gasoline benzene or energen as fuel. Gasoline. That 0:27:02.520 --> 0:27:06.439 lighter must have smelled terrible, so to refuel. Uh. It 0:27:06.480 --> 0:27:09.520 had two screw caps on this lighter, a big one 0:27:09.520 --> 0:27:11.720 and a small one, so you would want to unscrew 0:27:11.800 --> 0:27:15.040 the larger of the two screw caps and that would 0:27:15.119 --> 0:27:20.480 open up a access to the fuel chamber, and presumably 0:27:20.480 --> 0:27:23.080 you would then use a funnel and you would very 0:27:23.160 --> 0:27:26.639 carefully refuel the lighter or else risks spilling something like 0:27:26.760 --> 0:27:29.120 gasoline all over it and turning it into a very 0:27:29.200 --> 0:27:33.680 dangerous one use item. The other screw cap, the smaller one, 0:27:34.119 --> 0:27:36.880 was for the chamber that held the piece of pharaoh 0:27:36.880 --> 0:27:40.920 syrium in place, so that the strike wheel would maintain 0:27:41.080 --> 0:27:44.280 contact with the pharaoh cyrium. And so imagine that you've 0:27:44.280 --> 0:27:46.879 got this little piece of this material that when it's struck, 0:27:46.920 --> 0:27:50.959 it gives us sparks, and it's being held against this 0:27:51.000 --> 0:27:55.000 wheel through the use of a spring that's slightly compressed. 0:27:55.880 --> 0:27:59.760 Uh So the screw cap opened up the chamber where 0:27:59.760 --> 0:28:03.359 the spring was. So if your Pharao syrium ran out, 0:28:03.400 --> 0:28:05.199 you know, you're spinning the wheel and no sparks are 0:28:05.240 --> 0:28:07.919 coming out, probably means that there's no more far as syrium, 0:28:08.000 --> 0:28:10.720 or that it's been worn down so far that's no 0:28:10.800 --> 0:28:13.600 longer making contact with the wheel. You would unscrew the 0:28:13.600 --> 0:28:16.560 screw cap, you take the spring out, you would take 0:28:16.600 --> 0:28:19.439 out whatever little remnants of the Pharao serrium you had 0:28:19.480 --> 0:28:22.760 in there. You put a new piece into that chamber. 0:28:22.880 --> 0:28:25.200 The new piece of Pharao syrium. You would put the 0:28:25.760 --> 0:28:28.760 spring back into the chamber and you would have to 0:28:28.760 --> 0:28:31.159 compress it down a little bit as you screwed the 0:28:31.200 --> 0:28:34.119 screw cap back in place, and it would again hold 0:28:34.160 --> 0:28:37.719 the new piece of Farris serrium against that striking wheel, 0:28:37.960 --> 0:28:41.800 so that you would have the sparking material right there 0:28:41.840 --> 0:28:43.680 ready to go for the next time you need to 0:28:43.760 --> 0:28:46.360 use the lighter. So you can actually use these things 0:28:46.920 --> 0:28:51.560 indefinitely as long as the other components held out. The 0:28:51.600 --> 0:28:55.880 banjo sold for five dollars according to most sources I 0:28:55.960 --> 0:28:58.920 came across. Now, you know me, I had to find 0:28:58.920 --> 0:29:01.920 out how much would be if we were to purchase 0:29:01.960 --> 0:29:04.840 it today, right, because this was five dollars back in 0:29:05.000 --> 0:29:10.840 nineteen twenty six. So according to inflation calculators, five dollars 0:29:10.880 --> 0:29:13.160 back in nineteen twenty six would be about the same 0:29:13.200 --> 0:29:17.680 amount as seventy two dollars today if we we factor 0:29:17.680 --> 0:29:20.360 in inflation, So this would be a lighter that would 0:29:20.440 --> 0:29:24.240 cost seventy two bucks. That's a pretty expensive lighter. But 0:29:24.280 --> 0:29:27.040 I guess if you're thinking that this could potentially replace 0:29:27.120 --> 0:29:31.440 the need for matches for like ever, maybe that could 0:29:31.440 --> 0:29:34.040 be a deal. If you're going through matches like crazy. 0:29:34.120 --> 0:29:37.800 These days, the original Ronson banjo lighters, if you can 0:29:37.840 --> 0:29:41.000 find them in good condition, can sell for a couple 0:29:41.000 --> 0:29:44.200 of hundred to several hundred dollars. They are sought after 0:29:44.280 --> 0:29:48.920 by collectors uh. Since nineteen twenty eight or so, the 0:29:48.960 --> 0:29:51.680 only Ronson banjo lighters that have been made have been 0:29:51.760 --> 0:29:56.160 replicas out of Japan, so those obviously are not as valuable. 0:29:56.240 --> 0:29:59.480 It's only the ones between nineteen six and nineteen twenty 0:29:59.560 --> 0:30:02.680 eight that were originally made by Ronson that will fetch 0:30:02.760 --> 0:30:07.480 those higher prices. Lighters like the banjo have lids so 0:30:07.560 --> 0:30:10.960 that the fuel doesn't just gradually evaporate away. If you 0:30:11.960 --> 0:30:15.560 kept that wick exposed to air, then fuel would start 0:30:15.600 --> 0:30:18.680 to evaporate over time, and you would continue to see 0:30:18.680 --> 0:30:21.680 it wick away from the fuel chamber and then and 0:30:21.760 --> 0:30:25.720 evaporate into the atmosphere. So you would end up running 0:30:25.720 --> 0:30:27.680 out a fuel much faster, So you want to have 0:30:27.760 --> 0:30:31.440 some sort of cap that keeps that from happening. Another 0:30:31.480 --> 0:30:35.680 brand would make this style of lighter incredibly famous, particularly 0:30:35.880 --> 0:30:41.760 in America. That brand was Zippo, and Zippo's founder was 0:30:41.800 --> 0:30:45.680 a guy named George G. Blaisdell, and the story goes 0:30:45.720 --> 0:30:50.280 that in the early nineteen thirties, Blaisdell saw a guy 0:30:50.360 --> 0:30:53.760 at the Bradford Country Club where Blaisdell was hanging out 0:30:54.280 --> 0:30:57.560 uh in Pennsylvania struggled to light a cigarette from an 0:30:57.560 --> 0:31:02.160 Austrian built lighter. But the lighter was kind of unwieldy 0:31:02.200 --> 0:31:05.240 and it looked like it required two hands to operate. 0:31:05.360 --> 0:31:08.440 It was made out of very thin metal, so that 0:31:08.520 --> 0:31:11.920 thin metal was actually soft enough where if you were 0:31:12.080 --> 0:31:15.120 gripping it too tightly, you could dent the lighter just 0:31:15.200 --> 0:31:18.040 through trying to use it. So Blaisdel saw the opportunity 0:31:18.080 --> 0:31:21.240 to improve upon that design and create a pocket lighter 0:31:21.520 --> 0:31:23.920 for the United States because he also saw that people 0:31:24.520 --> 0:31:29.600 really like cigarettes and they were going through matches like crazy, 0:31:29.680 --> 0:31:32.280 So if you could market something like that, you could 0:31:32.280 --> 0:31:36.600 really make some money. So Blaisdell then goes and purchases 0:31:36.680 --> 0:31:40.280 the United States production and distribution rights for that Austrian 0:31:40.400 --> 0:31:45.320 lighter manufacturer, so now Blasdel has the rights to make 0:31:45.480 --> 0:31:50.680 and sell those style lighters in the US. However, it 0:31:50.720 --> 0:31:53.240 didn't go over so well. He gave them a chrome 0:31:53.360 --> 0:31:55.560 plating to kind of make them more attractive and a 0:31:55.600 --> 0:31:58.240 little more durable. And he tried to sell them, but 0:31:58.280 --> 0:32:01.440 the lighters just didn't work very well, so he ultimately 0:32:01.440 --> 0:32:04.560 decided to scrap that approach entirely and to make his 0:32:04.640 --> 0:32:07.479 own lighters. So he rented out a small work space 0:32:07.560 --> 0:32:11.120 and he hired three people and they collectively tried to 0:32:11.120 --> 0:32:13.960 build a prototype for a new type of lighter. Blaizel 0:32:14.040 --> 0:32:18.520 sunk nearly three bucks Princely some in nineteen two to 0:32:18.680 --> 0:32:22.719 purchase used equipment machining equipment in order to design and 0:32:22.760 --> 0:32:26.080 build this lighter. Together, they built a lighter that had 0:32:26.120 --> 0:32:29.600 a hinged top. If you open the top, it would 0:32:29.600 --> 0:32:32.880 expose the striking wheel and the wick to the to 0:32:33.000 --> 0:32:36.479 the air uh and the wick itself was housed inside 0:32:36.480 --> 0:32:39.640 a chimney like chamber to protect it from the wind, 0:32:40.160 --> 0:32:42.440 so you could use the lighter even if you were 0:32:42.440 --> 0:32:45.200 out in on a windy day. You can also open 0:32:45.280 --> 0:32:47.680 the lighter with one hand. You could flick it open. 0:32:48.240 --> 0:32:50.480 All it took was the spin of the wheel to 0:32:50.560 --> 0:32:54.760 strike against the ferres sinium flint to cause a spark 0:32:55.360 --> 0:32:57.880 that would ignite the fuel on the wick in the chimney, 0:32:57.960 --> 0:33:01.040 and you get a nice bright flame. So if you practiced, 0:33:01.440 --> 0:33:03.560 you can flip open the lighter with one hand. You 0:33:03.600 --> 0:33:05.640 can roll the wheel with your thumb, or if you're 0:33:05.640 --> 0:33:08.840 trying to be you know, like serious cool person, you 0:33:09.240 --> 0:33:12.640 flipped open and then you strike that wheel against your 0:33:12.720 --> 0:33:14.840 hip or your thigh or something, and you light it 0:33:14.880 --> 0:33:18.440 and then you do your cool you know, I meant 0:33:18.480 --> 0:33:21.800 to do that kind of face. I can't. I can't 0:33:21.880 --> 0:33:25.000 do that face because I if I meant to do it, 0:33:25.000 --> 0:33:27.800 it didn't happen, And if it happened, I'm just as 0:33:27.840 --> 0:33:31.240 surprised as you are. Anyway, the flame would stay active 0:33:31.640 --> 0:33:34.800 with the Zippo lighters until either all the fuel was 0:33:34.840 --> 0:33:38.080 gone or you flipped close the lid in order to 0:33:38.080 --> 0:33:40.440 cut off oxygen to the flame, so you didn't have 0:33:40.480 --> 0:33:43.240 to do anything to keep it lit. You know, you 0:33:43.240 --> 0:33:46.600 you roll the striking wheel as soon as those sparks 0:33:46.640 --> 0:33:50.280 ignite the fuel on the wick, it was gonna stay 0:33:50.320 --> 0:33:55.320 lit until you either closed it or you ran out 0:33:55.320 --> 0:33:58.000 of fuel or something else happened, like maybe I don't know, 0:33:58.040 --> 0:34:01.080 you dunked it in water or something. Blaze don't liked 0:34:01.200 --> 0:34:04.160 the sound of the word zipper. He felt that just 0:34:04.200 --> 0:34:06.760 had a really good zing to it, so he decided 0:34:06.840 --> 0:34:10.040 to take a kind of a variant on that. Then 0:34:10.120 --> 0:34:13.920 he named the lighter the Zippo. The original price for 0:34:14.000 --> 0:34:19.680 a windproof zippo was a dollar n two, which means 0:34:19.719 --> 0:34:23.319 that today it would cost you about thirty six dollars. Now, 0:34:23.320 --> 0:34:25.040 if you wanted to go out and buy a brand 0:34:25.040 --> 0:34:29.880 new zippo today, prices start somewhere around twenty bucks and 0:34:29.920 --> 0:34:32.480 they go up from there, reaching more than a hundred dollars. 0:34:32.480 --> 0:34:36.560 For certain limited edition zippos, they're known not only for 0:34:36.640 --> 0:34:40.440 their iconic hinged top and the fact that they'll stay 0:34:40.480 --> 0:34:43.120 lit once you light them, but also for the types 0:34:43.200 --> 0:34:45.719 of artwork that are featured on them. I think my 0:34:45.719 --> 0:34:50.360 own personal favorite is one that is the brass Necronomicon lighter. 0:34:50.640 --> 0:34:53.200 But then I'm also the guy who wrote how Cathulu 0:34:53.280 --> 0:34:56.400 works as well as how the Necronomicon works for how 0:34:56.440 --> 0:34:59.160 stuff works dot Com. By the way, I don't own 0:34:59.600 --> 0:35:02.040 a zip bow, but if I did, that's probably the 0:35:02.080 --> 0:35:04.040 one I would go for. Now. If you were to 0:35:04.080 --> 0:35:08.040 open up a modern Zippo lighter with the traditional fuel, 0:35:08.239 --> 0:35:10.840 so for example, let's say that you need to replace 0:35:10.920 --> 0:35:13.640 the wick or you need to refuel the zippo, here's 0:35:13.680 --> 0:35:16.920 how that that would go you would open up the case, 0:35:17.280 --> 0:35:19.520 and the Zippo case is just that, it's a case. 0:35:20.120 --> 0:35:23.560 It's it's not the lighter itself. The lighter is inside 0:35:23.600 --> 0:35:26.160 the case, and you can actually pull the lighter out 0:35:26.320 --> 0:35:29.160 lifting it out of the case. You turn the lighter 0:35:29.239 --> 0:35:32.000 upside down and on the underside you're gonna see a 0:35:32.680 --> 0:35:37.680 felt pad being held in place by a screw that's 0:35:38.200 --> 0:35:41.080 actually in an inside of a tube. That tube holds 0:35:41.480 --> 0:35:46.800 the pharaoh cirium uh or or flint screw. It's a 0:35:46.840 --> 0:35:50.480 piece that has the pharaoh cyrium at the very end 0:35:50.520 --> 0:35:53.319 of it. UH. If you're just refueling, you don't even 0:35:53.360 --> 0:35:56.920 need to touch that screw cap. You just move the 0:35:56.960 --> 0:35:59.799 felt pad out of the way like you bend it 0:35:59.800 --> 0:36:02.920 out the way, and then you would see some packing 0:36:02.960 --> 0:36:08.600 material inside the lighter. It kind of looks like cotton wadding, 0:36:08.760 --> 0:36:13.040 but it's this very specific type of packing material. So 0:36:13.280 --> 0:36:15.680 you would then take some lighter fluid Zippo as its 0:36:15.719 --> 0:36:19.080 own specific brand it would prefer you to use, and 0:36:19.239 --> 0:36:23.120 you would saturate that packing material. You would squirt the 0:36:23.200 --> 0:36:27.480 lighter fluid into the packing material itself. Once it was saturated, 0:36:27.840 --> 0:36:30.279 you would move the felt pad back into place to 0:36:30.320 --> 0:36:33.560 cover it up, and you would probably want to give 0:36:33.719 --> 0:36:35.960 the lighter a pass or two with a clean cloth 0:36:36.040 --> 0:36:38.719 to remove any excess fuel that might have spilled on 0:36:38.760 --> 0:36:40.840 the outside of it. Then you would replace the lighter 0:36:40.920 --> 0:36:43.120 inside the case. You want to also give the case 0:36:43.440 --> 0:36:45.839 a pass or two with a clean cloth, then wait 0:36:45.880 --> 0:36:48.919 a little bit to allow the lighter fluid to heat 0:36:49.000 --> 0:36:51.200 up to room temperature, and then you could use the 0:36:51.280 --> 0:36:54.279 lighter again and it would be totally refueled. While the 0:36:54.280 --> 0:36:56.520 purpose of a wick is to hold fuel and the 0:36:56.520 --> 0:36:59.640 wick itself isn't really meant to burn up, over time, 0:37:00.280 --> 0:37:03.719 carbon deposits on the wick will make the wick less effective. 0:37:03.760 --> 0:37:07.239 It won't absorb fuel, and then you'll get sparks when 0:37:07.239 --> 0:37:09.799 you're trying to use your lighter, but it won't actually light. 0:37:10.400 --> 0:37:12.840 So if you're using a Zippo like lighter, what you 0:37:12.880 --> 0:37:15.399 would do is you use some tweezers or a pair 0:37:15.440 --> 0:37:17.839 of needle nose players to grab hold of the end 0:37:17.880 --> 0:37:20.040 of the wick, and you would pull it out a 0:37:20.080 --> 0:37:22.960 little bit so that you get a clean section of 0:37:22.960 --> 0:37:27.520 wick inside the chimney of that lighter. Wicks are several 0:37:27.520 --> 0:37:29.680 inches long, so you can do this a couple of 0:37:29.719 --> 0:37:32.080 times with each wick. And when you do that, you 0:37:32.080 --> 0:37:35.640 would then snip off the end of the burnt wick, 0:37:35.760 --> 0:37:39.560 the carbon infused wick UH to remove that part so 0:37:39.600 --> 0:37:42.840 that you get a nice clean section inside the chimney, 0:37:43.080 --> 0:37:46.880 and then you're good to go for a good while longer. Now, 0:37:46.920 --> 0:37:49.359 if you've done that a couple of times, there might 0:37:49.360 --> 0:37:52.400 not be enough wick left inside the lighter to do 0:37:52.480 --> 0:37:55.160 it again, and you need to replace the wick. The 0:37:55.200 --> 0:37:58.640 replacement process is similar to what you would do if 0:37:58.680 --> 0:38:02.040 you were refueling, but as some extra steps. So you 0:38:02.080 --> 0:38:04.319 take the lighter out of the case, and rather than 0:38:04.400 --> 0:38:07.840 just moving the felt pad on the bottom aside, you 0:38:07.840 --> 0:38:11.080 would actually remove that screw at the end. It's called 0:38:11.080 --> 0:38:14.280 the flint screw again sparrow cerium, not flint, but whatever. 0:38:14.800 --> 0:38:17.040 You take out the felt pad because now it's no 0:38:17.120 --> 0:38:20.120 longer held there by the screw. UH. You would also 0:38:20.280 --> 0:38:23.960 take out the packing material, and the packing material typically 0:38:24.040 --> 0:38:27.720 comes out in three or four wads of the stuff. UH. 0:38:27.880 --> 0:38:30.960 You would need to feed a new wick into the lighter. 0:38:31.000 --> 0:38:34.040 You could either do it from inside through the fuel chamber, 0:38:34.520 --> 0:38:38.919 or you could put it down through the chimney and 0:38:39.040 --> 0:38:41.880 you get that so enough of it's poking out the 0:38:41.920 --> 0:38:45.200 top so that you've got the the clean wick at 0:38:45.200 --> 0:38:47.080 the top of the chimney, and then you would need 0:38:47.120 --> 0:38:49.520 to replace the packing material. You'd kind of have to 0:38:50.320 --> 0:38:52.960 do it in a way so that the packing material 0:38:53.080 --> 0:38:56.719 is all around the wick, so it has good exposure 0:38:57.080 --> 0:38:59.480 to that packing material, because remember it's the packing material 0:38:59.680 --> 0:39:02.800 the whole the fuel. The fuel then wicks into the wick, 0:39:03.239 --> 0:39:04.879 so you want to make sure it has really good 0:39:05.440 --> 0:39:08.120 um exposure to all of that. So you're packing the 0:39:08.400 --> 0:39:11.960 material all around the wick until it's all replaced. Then 0:39:12.000 --> 0:39:14.839 you would put the felt pad back in place, and 0:39:14.880 --> 0:39:18.560 you would re insert the flint screw, and then you 0:39:18.600 --> 0:39:21.520 could put it back inside the case and it would 0:39:21.560 --> 0:39:23.560 be good to go. Now, the reason I went through 0:39:23.560 --> 0:39:27.680 all that process wasn't to talk about Zippo the brand 0:39:28.000 --> 0:39:30.799 or anything. I'm not here to sell Zippo lighters, but 0:39:30.960 --> 0:39:35.200 rather to explain how lighters like the Zippo differ from 0:39:35.280 --> 0:39:40.160 other types of lighters, specifically those that use buttane, because 0:39:40.160 --> 0:39:43.400 not all lighters are created equal, and betane lighters work 0:39:43.520 --> 0:39:48.240 on slightly different principles from these style lighters, the wick 0:39:48.360 --> 0:39:51.400 based lighters. I'll explain more in just a moment. But 0:39:51.480 --> 0:40:02.080 first let's take another quick break. Before the break, I 0:40:02.160 --> 0:40:06.120 mentioned butane lighters, and they use butane as the fuel, 0:40:06.280 --> 0:40:09.840 and the basic type still uses a piece of ferrocerium 0:40:09.880 --> 0:40:13.560 to generate sparks to ignite that fuel. So in some 0:40:13.640 --> 0:40:16.080 ways they're very similar to the other types of lighters 0:40:16.080 --> 0:40:19.280 I just mentioned, but there are some key differences between 0:40:19.320 --> 0:40:23.319 butane lighters and the NUFA or lighter fluid based ones 0:40:23.400 --> 0:40:26.480 I had just been talking about. At room temperature and 0:40:26.600 --> 0:40:31.480 under normal atmospheric pressure, butane is a gas. It's naturally 0:40:31.600 --> 0:40:36.320 colorless and odorless. It's a hydrocarbon that's found in natural gas. 0:40:36.360 --> 0:40:39.680 It's also a byproduct during the process of refining petroleum 0:40:39.719 --> 0:40:44.600 to produce gasoline, and it is ignitable. But if you 0:40:44.640 --> 0:40:48.560 were to compress butane just a little bit, it liquefies. 0:40:48.960 --> 0:40:51.520 And it doesn't take too much pressure to convert mutane 0:40:51.560 --> 0:40:54.600 from a gas to liquid at room temperature about three 0:40:54.600 --> 0:40:57.479 and a half atmospheres of pressure. So if you sell 0:40:57.680 --> 0:41:02.600 bututane in a container that can hold that pressure, you 0:41:02.640 --> 0:41:05.640 apply that much pressure to it, at least the gas 0:41:05.640 --> 0:41:08.960 condenses into a liquid. Now I wish I could tell 0:41:09.040 --> 0:41:12.360 you when someone thought to use butane as a fuel 0:41:12.440 --> 0:41:15.279 for lighters. But honestly, there doesn't seem to be any 0:41:15.360 --> 0:41:18.799 record of when someone thought of that idea first. There 0:41:18.800 --> 0:41:23.840 are a lot of very general, vague descriptions. Some sources 0:41:23.960 --> 0:41:26.719 go really vague. They say something like sometime in the 0:41:26.800 --> 0:41:30.640 nineteen fifties people started using butchane for lighters. Others say 0:41:30.640 --> 0:41:32.719 it dates back a little earlier than that, with the 0:41:32.719 --> 0:41:35.360 invention of the butuane lighter coming somewhere in the nineteen 0:41:35.360 --> 0:41:39.560 thirties or nineteen forties, whenever they were first manufactured, and 0:41:39.600 --> 0:41:42.480 whomever it was that figured it out. They work on 0:41:42.520 --> 0:41:46.799 a pretty ingenious principle. So inside a butane lighter, the 0:41:46.800 --> 0:41:49.680 fuel chamber is sealed, so it acts as a low 0:41:49.800 --> 0:41:53.799 pressure container that keeps mutane in liquid form because it's 0:41:53.920 --> 0:41:57.120 under that three and a half atmospheres of pressure. A 0:41:57.239 --> 0:42:00.600 tube from the fuel chamber to the chim me, you know, 0:42:00.640 --> 0:42:04.160 the part where the flame comes up, acts as a 0:42:04.200 --> 0:42:07.720 conduit for this fuel. And the tube has a valve 0:42:08.200 --> 0:42:10.400 and a nozzle, so there's a valve and then right 0:42:10.400 --> 0:42:13.319 after the valves nozzle, so when the lighter is not used, 0:42:13.320 --> 0:42:16.200 the valve is shut. So the bututane remains in liquid form, 0:42:16.239 --> 0:42:19.720 there's nowhere for it to go. On a classic butane lighter, 0:42:20.000 --> 0:42:22.239 you've got the striking wheel, just like in the other 0:42:22.320 --> 0:42:25.080 lighters I've described, and rather than a wick, you have 0:42:25.320 --> 0:42:28.320 the end of a nozzle. And then there's this little 0:42:28.360 --> 0:42:31.480 button that you're supposed to hold down like you spin 0:42:31.520 --> 0:42:33.440 the wheel, and when your thumb comes down at the 0:42:33.520 --> 0:42:36.120 end of the spin, it presses this button and you're 0:42:36.160 --> 0:42:39.400 supposed to hold it down. That button is the release 0:42:39.760 --> 0:42:42.880 for the valve that closes off the tube from the 0:42:42.920 --> 0:42:47.240 fuel chamber. When that valve opens, there's a lower pressure 0:42:47.360 --> 0:42:50.200 pathway for the but tane to move through, and we 0:42:50.320 --> 0:42:53.120 know that fluids will move from an area of high 0:42:53.120 --> 0:42:56.520 pressure to an area of low pressure. So when this 0:42:56.600 --> 0:42:59.440 valve opens, the but tane moves up the tube and 0:42:59.480 --> 0:43:03.120 it hits the nozzle. The mutane then boils off into 0:43:03.200 --> 0:43:07.960 butane gas. The spark from the striking wheel uh and 0:43:08.080 --> 0:43:13.080 the flint or pharaoh's cirium ignites this escaping butane gas. 0:43:13.120 --> 0:43:15.680 So as long as you hold down the button, you 0:43:15.760 --> 0:43:18.520 keep the valve open, and the buttane gas continues to 0:43:18.560 --> 0:43:22.240 come out and feeds the flame. It provides the fuel, 0:43:22.680 --> 0:43:25.359 so the fuel is constantly being replenished as long as 0:43:25.360 --> 0:43:27.279 you hold down the button. When you let go of 0:43:27.280 --> 0:43:30.560 the button, it closes the valve, thus cutting off the 0:43:30.560 --> 0:43:34.040 fuel to the flame, and the flame goes out. Buttane 0:43:34.080 --> 0:43:37.440 lighters don't require a wick, so there's no need to 0:43:37.480 --> 0:43:41.479 replace wicks over time. There's no wick to replace. Many 0:43:41.600 --> 0:43:45.560 buttane lighters have a means of adjusting how wide that 0:43:45.680 --> 0:43:48.080 valve will open when you press down on a button. 0:43:48.440 --> 0:43:51.799 That affects how much butane gas can escape at any 0:43:51.840 --> 0:43:55.560 given amount of time, so it affects how big the 0:43:55.560 --> 0:43:59.000 flame will be. More fuel means bigger flame. Less fuel 0:43:59.160 --> 0:44:01.680 means smaller flame, so if you restrict the valve you 0:44:01.680 --> 0:44:03.840 get a very low flame. You open the valve as 0:44:03.920 --> 0:44:06.160 much as you can, the flame would be much larger. 0:44:07.000 --> 0:44:10.920 Another advantage was that butane didn't give off an unpleasant 0:44:10.920 --> 0:44:15.319 odor the way earlier fuels were. They were smelly, but 0:44:15.520 --> 0:44:19.600 butuane didn't smell. It burned without making any sort of 0:44:19.640 --> 0:44:23.560 smell at all. Really, one disadvantage is that it's trickier 0:44:23.600 --> 0:44:28.160 to refuel a bututane lighter. Some beautane lighters are marketed 0:44:28.200 --> 0:44:31.480 as disposable, which really just means there's no way to 0:44:31.600 --> 0:44:34.560 refuel them at all once they're out, so you're meant 0:44:34.600 --> 0:44:37.920 to throw them away and buy a new one. And 0:44:37.920 --> 0:44:40.520 when I say there's no way, people have figured out ways. 0:44:40.920 --> 0:44:43.520 But typically you're meant to just use it and then 0:44:43.640 --> 0:44:46.840 toss it, which is pretty wasteful. Perhaps the best known 0:44:47.040 --> 0:44:50.240 of these is the Big Lighter, which was first produced 0:44:50.239 --> 0:44:52.959 in the early nineteen seventies. The bit lighter was seen 0:44:53.040 --> 0:44:57.400 as an inexpensive alternative to the more fashionable lighters like Zippo. 0:44:58.040 --> 0:45:01.239 Other bututane lighters are meant to be reusable, and they 0:45:01.239 --> 0:45:04.520 include a second valve. This is typically on the base 0:45:04.600 --> 0:45:07.239 of the lighter, the underside of the lighter, and this 0:45:07.320 --> 0:45:11.840 valve allows buttane gas to get injected into the fuel chamber, 0:45:12.000 --> 0:45:15.279 but prevents it from coming back out. Now, typically if 0:45:15.280 --> 0:45:18.480 you were refueling a butane lighter, you would hold the 0:45:18.560 --> 0:45:21.759 lighter upside down. You'd use something pointy to kind of 0:45:21.800 --> 0:45:24.520 open up the valve and bleed it of any old 0:45:24.560 --> 0:45:27.760 butane gas, and then you would get a butane refill 0:45:27.880 --> 0:45:31.040 can which has a nozzle on the end. The nozzle 0:45:31.160 --> 0:45:35.359 goes into the valve of the lighter and you would 0:45:35.440 --> 0:45:39.439 just insert the bututane can into the lighter, and after 0:45:39.520 --> 0:45:42.439 just a couple of seconds, like five seconds, it would 0:45:42.760 --> 0:45:47.839 refill the fuel chamber on the butane lighter, and you'd 0:45:47.840 --> 0:45:50.000 want to wait a little bit for the fuel inside 0:45:50.040 --> 0:45:52.239 the lighter to reach room temperature and then you can 0:45:52.280 --> 0:45:56.040 start using it again. Over time, a new variant on 0:45:56.080 --> 0:45:58.520 the butuane lighter showed up. This is the piece of 0:45:58.560 --> 0:46:00.680 electric lighter. I told you we kind of come back 0:46:00.719 --> 0:46:03.640 to it. So remember how I said. Quartz is an 0:46:03.640 --> 0:46:06.800 interesting material. If you apply mechanical stress to it, the 0:46:06.880 --> 0:46:10.680 quarts generates an internal electric charge. Well that's a manifestation 0:46:10.719 --> 0:46:12.800 of the piece of electric effect. So a piece of 0:46:12.880 --> 0:46:16.600 electric lighter uses this particular phenomenon in order to generate 0:46:16.600 --> 0:46:20.560 a spark. So there's no ferro serrium in a uh 0:46:20.600 --> 0:46:23.120 in a in this kind of lighter, or or flint 0:46:23.200 --> 0:46:26.680 if you prefer, there's none of that instead. A piece 0:46:26.719 --> 0:46:29.720 of electric lighter typically has a button on the lighter. 0:46:30.120 --> 0:46:32.720 If you push down on that button, you would probably 0:46:32.760 --> 0:46:35.000 feel a click, kind of like a click pen. But 0:46:35.080 --> 0:46:37.960 what's happening is that the button is typically doing two things. 0:46:38.400 --> 0:46:41.600 It's transferring the force you've just exerted on the button 0:46:41.800 --> 0:46:45.000 onto some piece of electric material, and maybe not directly, 0:46:45.320 --> 0:46:48.640 it might pull back and then release a spring loaded 0:46:48.680 --> 0:46:52.239 hammer which then strikes this piece of electric material that 0:46:52.280 --> 0:46:55.480 makes the material generate an electric charge, and that creates 0:46:55.480 --> 0:46:59.000 a difference of voltage between two little electrodes and causes 0:46:59.120 --> 0:47:03.279 a small spark to fly between them. And at the 0:47:03.360 --> 0:47:08.040 same time, pushing down on the button also releases a 0:47:08.160 --> 0:47:12.720 valve that opens up the pathway to the fuel chamber, 0:47:12.960 --> 0:47:16.840 so beutane gas escapes at that same moment, so the 0:47:16.880 --> 0:47:21.000 beautane gas starts to come out of the chamber through 0:47:21.000 --> 0:47:23.799 a nozzle at the same time as a spark is 0:47:23.800 --> 0:47:27.720 flying across the nozzle and that ignites the escaping gas 0:47:27.760 --> 0:47:30.840 and you get a flame. So you see this in 0:47:30.880 --> 0:47:34.320 a lot of different types of lighters, including like pocket lighters, 0:47:34.360 --> 0:47:37.360 but also the utility lighters that I think about, like 0:47:37.400 --> 0:47:40.200 the ones that have the very long stems and use 0:47:40.320 --> 0:47:44.600 them to light candles or fireplaces, that kind of thing. Uh, 0:47:44.640 --> 0:47:49.040 they typically have the piezo electric approach as opposed to 0:47:49.200 --> 0:47:53.279 a faroh cirium kind of lighting system. So you can 0:47:53.320 --> 0:47:56.920 find lighters like this that actually fit into lighter cases, 0:47:56.960 --> 0:47:59.360 like the ones made famous by Zippo. So if you 0:47:59.440 --> 0:48:04.160 preferred that mechanism to the faro syrium traditional type of lighter, 0:48:04.239 --> 0:48:05.799 you could swap them out, and you can take out 0:48:05.840 --> 0:48:08.000 one lighter and you put another one in the same case. 0:48:08.360 --> 0:48:10.400 And a neat thing about this particular type of lighter 0:48:10.440 --> 0:48:13.240 is that although it uses an electric spark to ignite 0:48:13.239 --> 0:48:16.480 a flame, there's no need for a battery or anything 0:48:16.520 --> 0:48:19.480 like that. There's no source of electricity apart from the 0:48:19.480 --> 0:48:22.680 piece of electric material. So as long as that material 0:48:22.800 --> 0:48:25.640 is inside the lighter, and as long as the mechanism 0:48:25.880 --> 0:48:29.880 that exerts mechanical stress onto the material is still working, 0:48:30.320 --> 0:48:33.600 you should still be able to generate sparks. One other 0:48:33.640 --> 0:48:35.920 type of lighter I should mention before I close out 0:48:35.960 --> 0:48:39.560 this episode works on yet another principle, and this would 0:48:39.560 --> 0:48:43.080 be the old fashioned car cigarette lighters. And you don't 0:48:43.120 --> 0:48:45.640 typically see these in cars anymore, at least not as 0:48:45.680 --> 0:48:48.880 a standard option, but it used to be a really 0:48:48.960 --> 0:48:53.239 common feature. So they look like little knobs that are 0:48:53.280 --> 0:48:55.880 typically somewhere in the dashboard and you would push it 0:48:55.920 --> 0:48:58.480 in and it would remain pushed in for a short 0:48:58.520 --> 0:49:01.120 while before it would hop back out, kind of like 0:49:01.160 --> 0:49:04.440 a toaster. You would then pull the knob out of 0:49:04.480 --> 0:49:08.879 the dashboard and the other end from the handle would 0:49:08.920 --> 0:49:11.560 be glowing red hot, and you would apply that into 0:49:11.600 --> 0:49:14.000 whatever it was he wanted to light, which more often 0:49:14.040 --> 0:49:17.760 than not was a cigarette, and the heat was greater 0:49:17.800 --> 0:49:20.440 than the ignition temperature of the material and it starts 0:49:20.480 --> 0:49:23.279 to burn. Now, I have a distinct memory of being 0:49:23.280 --> 0:49:26.799 a kid and my dad patiently explaining to me that 0:49:26.840 --> 0:49:30.560 the cigarette lighter on the dashboard of our old Dodge 0:49:30.719 --> 0:49:33.920 Dart would in fact get super super hot. He was 0:49:33.960 --> 0:49:36.319 trying to teach me to be careful and not to 0:49:36.400 --> 0:49:39.440 play with it, right, because this was in the nineteen 0:49:39.520 --> 0:49:43.920 seventies when such things were common, And I remember I 0:49:43.960 --> 0:49:47.319 was a particularly dumb kid, No big surprise there. You 0:49:47.360 --> 0:49:50.120 guys all know who I am. And I immediately didn't 0:49:50.120 --> 0:49:53.280 believe him. So I touched it and I burnt myself 0:49:53.760 --> 0:49:56.480 because I was dumb. But I learned a valuable lesson, 0:49:56.960 --> 0:49:58.920 one that my dad was telling the truth, and to 0:49:59.200 --> 0:50:02.960 that the facts. Car cigarette lighters get really really hot. 0:50:03.280 --> 0:50:06.319 But how do they get hot. Well, in the end 0:50:06.840 --> 0:50:09.319 of the car cigarette lighter, the business end, the end 0:50:09.320 --> 0:50:13.399 that lights stuff. There's a coil of wire, and it's 0:50:13.440 --> 0:50:17.720 typically made from something like nichrome, which is nickel chrome, 0:50:18.160 --> 0:50:20.840 and it's a generic term for a group of alloys 0:50:20.920 --> 0:50:23.560 that are made up of surprise, surprise, nickel and chrome 0:50:23.640 --> 0:50:26.839 and sometimes other stuff like iron. This material has a 0:50:26.880 --> 0:50:32.120 pretty high resistivity. That means it's resistant to electrical current 0:50:32.440 --> 0:50:36.719 flowing through that material and quick refresh. You can think 0:50:36.719 --> 0:50:42.360 of all materials everywhere as being on a spectrum of conductivity. 0:50:42.440 --> 0:50:45.759 At one end extreme end of that spectrum, you have 0:50:45.800 --> 0:50:49.640 stuff that allows electricity to pass without any resistance at all. 0:50:49.760 --> 0:50:53.200 The electrons just flow through it, there's no problem there. 0:50:53.239 --> 0:50:56.200 These would be super conductors, and typically we don't see 0:50:56.239 --> 0:50:59.960 superconductors unless we have some very special circumstances involved, such 0:51:00.080 --> 0:51:04.279 is cooling stuff down to near absolute zero. On the 0:51:04.320 --> 0:51:07.160 opposite end of the spectrum, you have material that pretty 0:51:07.239 --> 0:51:10.400 much prevents any electrical current from passing through that material 0:51:10.480 --> 0:51:14.640 at all. It just stops. These would be insulators. Nichrome 0:51:14.880 --> 0:51:17.839 resists the flow of electricity. It allows it to move through, 0:51:18.120 --> 0:51:21.360 but it resists the flow, and in the process the 0:51:21.480 --> 0:51:24.480 metal heats up as some of that energy from the 0:51:24.480 --> 0:51:28.400 electricity gets converted over into heat. So if you had 0:51:28.440 --> 0:51:30.880 a coil of this stuff, and you passed an electric 0:51:30.920 --> 0:51:34.040 current through it, the stuff heats up. And that's the 0:51:34.080 --> 0:51:38.000 basic principle behind inventions like the electric stove and electric 0:51:38.080 --> 0:51:42.879 space heaters. They use wires or uh components like this 0:51:43.160 --> 0:51:47.799 with high resistivity to convert electrical current into heat. Now, well, 0:51:47.920 --> 0:51:50.560 when it's not in use, the car cigarette lighter isn't 0:51:50.600 --> 0:51:54.000 in contact with the electrodes that would otherwise push electric 0:51:54.040 --> 0:51:56.960 current through the lighter. But when you pressed the lighter in, 0:51:57.600 --> 0:52:00.680 it would engage with those electrodes and the current would 0:52:00.680 --> 0:52:04.480 come from the car's overall electrical circuit. Inside the lighter 0:52:04.840 --> 0:52:08.040 is a spring, so it compresses as you push it in, 0:52:08.160 --> 0:52:11.359 and there's a little retaining clip that would engage when 0:52:11.400 --> 0:52:13.600 it was pushed all the way in and would hold 0:52:14.120 --> 0:52:18.759 the cigarette lighter in that compressed state, so it's in 0:52:18.840 --> 0:52:23.480 contact with those electrodes. But the clip, the retaining clip 0:52:24.120 --> 0:52:27.880 was made from a bimetallic material. Now, as the name implies, 0:52:28.200 --> 0:52:30.880 bimetallic stuff is made up of two metals, and in 0:52:30.880 --> 0:52:33.760 this case, it's a strip that's made up of two 0:52:33.800 --> 0:52:38.560 different materials that expand at different rates when they get hot. 0:52:38.840 --> 0:52:42.040 So you press the lighter in the current goes through 0:52:42.080 --> 0:52:45.799 the nichrome wire, the wire heats up and the biometallic 0:52:45.920 --> 0:52:49.320 restraining clips starts to get hot until one side of 0:52:49.320 --> 0:52:51.480 the clip begins to expand faster than the other and 0:52:51.520 --> 0:52:54.319 it starts to curl away. Eventually that bends the clip 0:52:54.480 --> 0:52:57.640 enough so that the spring is released and the cigarette 0:52:57.680 --> 0:53:00.560 lighter pops back out from the dashboard. It disc engages 0:53:00.640 --> 0:53:03.279 from the electrodes and you're able to pull it out 0:53:03.320 --> 0:53:07.160 the dashboard and that end is super hot. These days, 0:53:07.200 --> 0:53:10.720 you typically seen car manufacturers offer this as an electrical 0:53:10.760 --> 0:53:14.200 outlet rather than a cigarette lighter, and you could plug 0:53:14.280 --> 0:53:16.400 something again, like a converter so that you can plug 0:53:16.400 --> 0:53:18.920 in your your cell phone chargers, that kind of stuff. 0:53:19.960 --> 0:53:23.719 But occasionally you can find car manufacturers that offer it 0:53:23.760 --> 0:53:26.640 as an option or you can get as an aftermarket 0:53:26.880 --> 0:53:30.120 thing for your vehicle. But really we've seen a massive 0:53:30.160 --> 0:53:33.520 decline in car cigarette lighters over the years, as we've 0:53:33.560 --> 0:53:36.359 also seen a decline in cigarette smoking in general, which 0:53:36.440 --> 0:53:38.600 I considered to be a good thing. So there you 0:53:38.640 --> 0:53:41.839 have it. That's how lighters work, and I think it's 0:53:41.840 --> 0:53:44.000 a good idea to have a few lighters just in 0:53:44.120 --> 0:53:47.200 case of emergencies. Such as loss of power. A good 0:53:47.239 --> 0:53:50.440 piezo electric lighter, particularly one of those utility lighters I 0:53:50.480 --> 0:53:52.879 was talking about that half a long stem that could 0:53:52.880 --> 0:53:55.200 be really handy if you need to light stuff like 0:53:55.320 --> 0:53:58.280 candles or lamps in the case of a power power failure. 0:53:58.440 --> 0:54:00.920 It's also good to know how to use pharaoh sirium 0:54:01.440 --> 0:54:05.120 like pharaoh sirium sticks or fire starter sticks. I think 0:54:05.160 --> 0:54:08.400 it's a must have component if you ever plan on 0:54:08.440 --> 0:54:11.200 doing stuff like camping, or you want to have like 0:54:11.239 --> 0:54:15.840 a survivalist gear package, you gotta have fire starter sticks. 0:54:15.840 --> 0:54:18.279 It's a reliable way to generate the sparks you need 0:54:18.320 --> 0:54:21.160 to start campfires. You don't have to worry about water 0:54:21.280 --> 0:54:24.800 ruining your matches, or you don't have to carry combustible fuel, 0:54:24.880 --> 0:54:27.200 which in itself could be a danger. The good old 0:54:27.200 --> 0:54:30.240 fire sticks will really serve you well in those cases. 0:54:30.800 --> 0:54:33.360 But that wraps up this episode. If you guys have 0:54:33.400 --> 0:54:37.160 suggestions for future topics for tech stuff, let me know. 0:54:37.320 --> 0:54:39.360 You can get in touch with me on social media 0:54:39.480 --> 0:54:42.560 Facebook or Twitter. The handle for both of those is 0:54:42.600 --> 0:54:45.360 text stuff h s. W LL look forward to hearing 0:54:45.400 --> 0:54:48.720 from you, and I'll talk to you again really soon. 0:54:53.360 --> 0:54:55.560 Tex Stuff is a production of I heart Radio's How 0:54:55.640 --> 0:54:59.000 Stuff Works. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit 0:54:59.040 --> 0:55:02.440 the i heart radio app Apple Podcasts, wherever you listen 0:55:02.480 --> 0:55:03.520 to your favorite shows.