Zippo

Zippo Manufacturing Company is an American maker of refillable windproof pocket lighters, based in Bradford, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1932 by George Grant Blaisdell, who first tried to sell an imported Austrian lighter, then designed his own rectangular brass lighter and named it Zippo after the zipper. Production began in 1933 and every lighter carries a lifetime guarantee, backed by a repair clinic in Bradford. Sales were slow at first, but military orders in the Second World War made the lighter a favorite of American servicemen. Over the decades the firm added a specialty advertising business, collector editions, pocket knives through its 1993 purchase of W.R. Case and Sons Cutlery, and licensed goods such as leather items made in Italy. It was a privately held company, and in the mid-2000s it sold lighters in more than 120 countries, with Japan its largest export market.