Lighter

A lighter is a portable device that uses a mechanical or electrical mechanism to create a controlled flame for igniting cigarettes, candles, campfires, fireworks or other flammable materials. The German chemist Johann Wolfgang Dobereiner is credited with inventing one of the first lighters in 1823, a device known as Dobereiner's lamp that produced a flame by passing hydrogen gas over a platinum catalyst, but the modern disposable lighter only became practical after the Austrian chemist Carl Auer von Welsbach developed the spark-producing alloy ferrocerium in 1903, after which companies such as Ronson and Zippo commercialized lighter designs through the 20th century.