History of Zippo Lighter

Zippo Manufacturing Company was founded by George G. Blaisdell(located in Bradford, Pennsylvania) in 1932, in early 1933 Zippo produced the first Zippo lighter, being inspired by an Austrian cigarette lighter of similar design. It got its name because Blaisdell liked the sound of the word "zipper". On March 3, 1936, patent was granted for the Zippo lighter. Since 1933, over 400,000,000 Zippo lighters have been produced. After World War II, the Zippo lighter became increasingly used in advertising by companies large and small through the 1960s. Many of the early advertising Zippo lighters are works of art painted by hand, and as technology has evolved, so has the design and finish of the Zippo lighter. The basic mechanism of the Zippo lighter has remained unchanged.

In 2002 Zippo expanded its product line to include a variety of utility-style multi-purpose lighters, known as the Zippo MPL. This was followed in 2005 with the Outdoor Utility Lighter, known as the OUL. These lighters are fuelled with butane. In August 2007 Zippo released a new butane cigarette lighter called the Zippo BLU. A museum called Zippo/Case visitors center is located in Bradford, PA at 1932 Zippo Drive. This 15,000 square foot (1393 m²) building contains rare and custom made Zippo lighters, and also sells the entire Zippo line. The museum also contains an enormous collection of Case knives. Since the Zippo company's 60th anniversary in 1992, annual editions have been produced for worldwide Zippo collectors.

How to Read Zippo Lighters Code

From mid-1955 Zippo started year coding their lighters by the use of dots (.). From 1966 until 1973 the year code was denoted by combinations of vertical lines (|). From 1974 until 1981 the coding comprised combinations of forward slashes (/), and from 1982 until June 1986 the coding was by backslash (\).

In July 1986, Zippo began including a lot code on all lighters showing the month and year of production. On the left of the underside was stamped a letter A–L, denoting the month (A = January, B = February, et cetera). On the right was a Roman numeral which denoted the year, beginning with II in 1986. Thus a Zippo stamped H IX was made in August, 1993. However in 2000, Zippo altered this system, changing the Roman numerals to more conventional Arabic numerals. Thus a Zippo made in August 2004 was stamped H 04. There was a myth that Zippo lighters were made by prisoners, and the number identified the prisoner, or their crime and sentence length.  Another myth was that a Zippo stamped 'H' was inferior to one stamped 'A'.

How to Spot Fake Zippo Lighters

First of all, all Zippo inserts say "Zippo" on them and usually say to use their flints and fluid, etc..  All Zippo manufactured packaging/cases shows Zippo logo. Check the ZIPPO stamp on the bottom of the lighter. On real Zippos, the flame over the "i" is taller than the rest of the letters.  Real Zippo stamp is deep and clear. Lots of fake date code stamps are in very thin letters and numbers. Real stampings are deep and the lines are thicker. The spot welds on real Zippo hinges are usually oval and not too obvious.  Every Zippo pocket lighter is backed by Zippo famous lifetime guarantee that, "It works or we fix it free."