That really created a whole new market for cigarette lighters because now it was a whole lot easier to make all kinds. The flint was invented by an Austrian man who was an inventor and some kind of scientist. Ready-made cigarettes really didnвЂ™t become popular until around the time of World War I. Back then they were called cigar lighters. The flint really revolutionized the world of lighters. Once again, the lighter fluid thatвЂ™s in the wick ignites and you get a flame. In a Zippo lighter, you have a wheel that you spin and thereвЂ™s a spring thatвЂ™s holding a flint up against the wheel, which creates sparks. LetвЂ™s backtrack a bit to the invention of the flint. Collectors Weekly: Was Ronson the earliest mechanical lighter produced?Д¬ummings: No. It was a strike lighter and they called it the Wonder Lighter. They finally closed the plant there and moved to a different location, still in New Jersey. Within a couple of years, he moved Art Metal Works to Newark, New Jersey, and thatвЂ™s where it remained until the 1960s. He actually started in New York City, where he grew up and went to school.

He took the $5,000 and started his company. He sold the patent for $5,000 and retained the right to use it himself. Louis Aronson graduated from metallurgical school when he was 17, and his first patent was for a gold-like metal that he used on lots of lighters and other things he made. The name of the company from the very beginning was not Ronson it was Art Metal Works. The Ronson name was first used in 1909 for automobile wrenches that Mr. Cummings: The name Ronson comes from the inventorвЂ™s name, Louis V.

Ronson lighter wick