A lighter is a transportable machine that produces a flame, usually used for igniting cigarettes, candles, or different small objects. Lighters might be fueled by numerous flammable substances, corresponding to butane, propane, or lighter fluid, and so they usually encompass a gas reservoir, a valve, and a spark ignition mechanism. Disposable lighters are the commonest sort and are sometimes manufactured from plastic, whereas refillable lighters are manufactured from metallic and can be utilized a number of occasions by refilling the gas reservoir.
Lighters have been round for hundreds of years, with the primary recognized instance being the tinderbox, which was invented within the sixteenth century. Tinderboxes had been used to create a spark by putting flint towards metal, which might then ignite tinder, a extremely flammable materials. Within the nineteenth century, the primary friction match was invented, which was a lot simpler to make use of than tinderboxes and shortly grew to become the popular technique of ignition. Nevertheless, friction matches weren’t at all times dependable, and within the early twentieth century, the primary lighters had been invented. Lighters had been rather more dependable than matches and shortly grew to become the popular technique of ignition for people who smoke and different customers.