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22 Feb 2008 03:51:01 | Ruthaford
The Zippo
company originated in a small Pennsylvania town during the
depression, at a time when the United States was indeed struggling.
Zippo's success was created through innovation and a lot of hard
work, through the creation of a durable yet still very functional
product, a very effective marketing campaign that includes a
lifetime warranty. What happened was one night in 1932 there was a
dinner held at the country club in Bradford, Pennsylvania. Attending
the dance was one George G. Blaisdell. George was currently trying to
think of a new way to create a bit of income during this rough time
in our Nations history.
Up until
this night Mr. Blaisdell had not been able to figure a way of
generating more money. During the dinner he took a break to go have a
smoke out on the balcony. There he found a friend of his trying to
light up a cigarette. His friend had pulled out his lighter to light
his cigarette. In doing so Blaisdell noticed his friends lighter was
very tattered and looking a bit worse for wear. Almost in a chuckle,
Blaisdell asked his friend why such and horrible looking lighter
when he was dressed up so nice. His friends response sparked a great
idea. He friend replied, "it works". Those two words sparked on
of the greatest ideas of the time. Blaisedell thought about that all
night long. He figured that is exactly what people need in this time
inexpensive and durable. After more consideration he realized it was
just during rough times people would want this. This was something
that would always be sought after. He thought to himself this lighter
business is sounds promising!
Blaisdell quickly obtained the
rights from an Austrian lighter manufacturer to sell their lighters.
In an attempt to improve its appearance, Blaisdell chrome-plated the
lid of the lighter and raised the price to one dollar. However, he
still could not sell any of these lighters. He discovered that there
were far too many defects in the lighter. But that did not deter
Blaisdell. He was determined to develop a new lighter that would not
fail to light
.
He Abandoned the defective Austrian lighter
and began work on the soon to be "zippo
lighter". Blaisdell rented an office space that he paid $10 a
month in rent, hired three people, and began trying to develop his
own lighter. He and his team used an electric hot plate for
soldering. As money was tight during this time he could not afford
new equipment. The total cost of his equipment was $260 at the time.
The first thing Blaisdell did was to make the zippo
lighter smaller to be able to fit in the palm of the hand, and he
incorporated a hinge to hold the lid to the bottom, making it part of
the lighter. This enabled the user to be able to open the lighter
with just one hand. Blaisdell then utilized the hood design of the
previous Austrian lighter and placed a wind hood around the wick.
This new lighter he had created was named "Zippo".
About Author :
Just beginning in the writing field. Interested in how others get their start in life being and small business owner himself. "zippo
lighter"
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