Greetings from the home of the Zippo lighter

[Charles E. Church]

Hello to all. I just found this forum yesterday and look forward to talking with others about one of my favorite subjects, photography. Hopefully you all may give me some great pointers and in return I can give my limited knowledge on the subject. This looks like a nice place to learn and discuss photogrpahy. Chuck

 

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Chuck,

I certainly recognize the name Bradford, Pa. *, but was not aware of it being "The Home of the Zippo Lighter".

Welcome to our pack. This is in fact an extraordinary arena.

I look forward to interacting with you here.

*Note that it is not considered good editorial practice to use postal codes for states (e.g, "PA") in narrative text, but abbreviations for the longer state names (e.g., "Pa." fpr Pennsylvania) are considered appropriate by the AP Stylebook.)

 

[Charles E. Church]

Just a little history lesson, the Zippo lighter was more or less invented here in Bradford by George G. Blaisdell after he used a lighter belonging to another man. That lighter was in two pieces but essentially like the zippo without a hinged top. George thought a top connected to the lighter with a hinge would be a better design, it obviously was/is. Otherwise the design is much the same as that two piece one. At one time there was a problem with the flint wheel (the little rough edged wheel that scratches the flint and makes a spark) so George stopped producing the lighter and kept his employees working with full pay until the problem was corrected. The story says it cost him quite a bit of money to do it, but he wanted a good quality product. Tere is a lifetime guarantee on a Zippo. The company has even replaced one that was run over by a paving roller, another damaged by a rotary lawn mower and many others. The factory has always been here. There was a factory in Canada, but it was closed several years ago. BTW Zippo produced the 400,000,000th lighter a couple years ago, it is on dislay at the Zippo/Case Visitor's Center, in case anyone would want to photograph the lighter. ;-)

 

[Rachel Foster]

Welcome to OPF!

 

[Marshall Everett]

Greetings from Arizona, where people just point their cigarettes toward the sun to light them. (well,not really)..... Welcome Chuck.

Marshall

 

[nicolas claris]

Welcome Chuck !

from a former smoker who used and lost many Zippos!

*Note that it is not considered good editorial practice to use postal codes for states (e.g, "PA") in narrative text, but abbreviations for the longer state names (e.g., "Pa." fpr Pennsylvania) are considered appropriate by the AP Stylebook.)

Hi Doug, for us, non americans, writing Pennsylvania in full is even better than any codes! ;-)

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

..Hi Doug, for us, non americans, writing Pennsylvania in full is even better than any codes! ;-)

Except when it's about Pennsylvania 6-5000 (LOL)

Welcome Chuck, from a person who has never smoked but liked playing with Zippos nevertheless. It's that "clunky" sound and the smooth and cool feeling in your hands. ;-)

Cheers,

 

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Cem,

Except when it's about Pennsylvania 6-5000 (LOL)

PEnnsylvania 6- 5000.

And note that at one time, shortly after the introduction of dial service (before that, the number was Pennsylvania 5000) that was PENnsylvania 5000 (also 7 digits, the same number). (This was when only New York and Chicago had three digit central office numbers.) The convention of a three-digit central office code being presented as the two initial letters of the central office name plus the third digit itself came a bit later (when it was found to be too difficult to think of names whose first three letters mapped to the various 3-digit codes that were allocated)..

The house magazine for the New York Police Department is called "Spring 3100". That was in fact the department's telephone number in the days of manual service. With dial service, it became SPRing 3100 (777-3100), then later SPring 7-3100 (777-3100), then later (if the number was still used at the time) SP7-3100, then (again if used) 777-3100 (777-3100).

In more modern times (late 1950s) it was common in the Bell Telephone system in various cities to use the CO name "Spring" with a 3rd digit of 7 for new central offices out of nostaligia's sake.

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Charles E. Church]

To think this all came about because I live in Pennsylvania, and didn't write PA or Pa. Thanks folks for the warm welcome and the telephone history lesson. And I can still remember my parents phone number when you had to wait for the operator to pick up and say "number please." That phone number was three digits and a letter. Forget the three letter exchange and the four numbers. Oops, did I just let everyone know that I am getting old???? So far this is a great place!!! I'm loving this.
Chuck

 

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Chuck,

And I can still remember my parents phone number when you had to wait for the operator to pick up and say "number please." That phone number was three digits and a letter. Forget the three letter exchange and the four numbers.

The letter was likely J, M, R, or W.

Best regards,

Doug