Zippo inventor George Grant Blaisdell began his career at the Blaisdell Machinery Company in Bradford, Pennsylvania.

Firstly, George Grant Blaisdell worked as a machinist about 56 hours a week for fee of 10 cents an hour. Later he became a manager of the company and at the age of 20 took over the business. That time Blaisdell Machinery Company worked, mainly, under government contracts.

In 1920 George sold the company and invested all his money in a local oil wells, Blaisdell Oil Company and over the next ten years he developed this business with his brother Walt, having both success and failures. But as time goes by, there were more and more failures because of the Great American Depression and it was a time to take decisions and to change his life.

It is said that Zippo’s timeline began in the early 1930s, at the Bradford Country Club when George Blaisdell watched a friend awkwardly using a cumbersome Austrian-made lighter.

The lighter worked well, even in the wind, due to the design of the chimney. Mr. Blaisdell was suitably impressed and decided to try to sell such lighters himself. He obtained rights to distribute the product in the United States, imported them for 12 cents each, and attempted to sell them for 1 dollar each. But this venture failed, mainly because of the clumsy nature of the lighter's design. Nevertheless Mr. Blaisdell didn’t give up and decided to design his own lighter, attractive and easy to use.

In 1932 he made the case rectangular, attached the lid to the bottom with a welded hinge, and surrounded the wick with a windhood. Since he liked the name of another new invention (“zipper”) he decided to call his new lighter the “Zippo” and the company got the name Zippo Manufacturing Company.

George Blaisdell invested 260 dollars in equipment and three employees and began Zippos’ production in a 10 dollars per month rented room over the Rickerson & Pryde garage in 1933. The first Zippo sold for 1,95 dollars each and every product had a lifetime guarantee - “it works or we fix it for free.”

Application for the original Zippo patent was filed on May 17, 1934, and patent number 2 032 695 was granted on March 3, 1936 and Zippo began its victorious procession over the world.




1. Zippo history