This Zippo-type lighter encloses 16 safety matches standing like soldiers in two rows. The matches are connected with a small, simple conveyor system so that flipping open the lid causes them to shift and the next match to move forward to the lighting position aperture.

Rotating the wheel, instead of causing a spark, raises the match through the hole against the phosphorus sesquisulphide in the wheel’s rough "striking" strip to react with the potassium chlorate in the match head. The match can be raised even higher with the wheel as it burns and be returned after it’s extinguished.

This chrome beauty from the past will light up your life, from campfires to candles.
-- FarmerJohn, Jun 13 2004

Zippo http://www.inv.co.j...jpeg/zippo/fire.jpg
[FarmerJohn, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

Aha, I found it. http://www.countyco...permmatch2large.jpg
Took long enough. Finally turned up under Permanent Match. [2 fries shy of a happy meal, Mar 02 2008]

I don't see how that "simple" conveyor system works. Any drawing? Otherwise you may have to resort to a machine gun style system with the matches tied into a belt that moves them in and out of the ignition chamber. Nice retirement gift for officers.

Edit after FJ response below: OK FJ, you get your bakeware.
-- kbecker, Jun 13 2004


Very retro. I've got a very old Zippo match different than what you describe of course but I've never seen another. A hollow "match stick" houses a striker and a wick, when the matchstick is in its case it is soaked in lighter fluid and there is a length of flint up the side of the case to strike the match against. I tried to find a link to it but all I could find was this. [link]
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jun 13 2004


[kbecker] That's exactly how I'd imagined it, though in an endless, oval belt, and the matches could slide out for striking and refill. Seen from above:

.€>€>€>€>€>€>€.
€~~~~~~~~~~~~(€)
.€<€<€<€<€<€<€.
-- FarmerJohn, Jun 13 2004


Is it easy to reload the matches? Am I thinking of this right?

Being a fan of fire, I'd buy one. The allure of matches with the class of lighters, combined.
-- Cheekio, Jun 13 2004


//reload the matches?// I'm imagining inverting the opened lighter and shaking out the match sticks before loading new rounds.
-- FarmerJohn, Jun 13 2004


Cool...like a Pyromaniac's Pez dispenser. +

[2 fries shy of a happy meal]: Oh my gosh, I used to have one of those when I was a kid. Memories...:-).
-- Guncrazy, Jun 13 2004


If matches could be removed while lit for tricky things like barbeques, I'd buy one. +
-- swimr, Jun 13 2004


Not what you'd call practical, but I like it.
-- brewer, Jun 13 2004


"If matches could be removed while lit for tricky things like barbeques"
or better yet, ejected.
-- half, Jun 13 2004


Actually, my shop teacher was telling us how to make matchstick guns. 1 spring clothespeg, 1 elastic, a few matches, a match flint thing. The elastic is streched into the inside of the clothespeg, with a match inside it. This gets hard to describe, basically a flaming match is ejected at the target, it doesn't go out because the red stuff is still burning.
-- swimr, Jun 13 2004



random, halfbakery