# Think back to the days of refillable wick pocket lighters. Did people just buy a quart of Naphtha? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 22, 2015, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-back-to-the-days-of-refillable-wick-pocket-lighters-did-people-just-buy-a-quart-of-naphtha/725904 "2015-07-22T21:33:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2015, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-back-to-the-days-of-refillable-wick-pocket-lighters-did-people-just-buy-a-quart-of-naphtha/725904/21 "2015-07-23T14:55:34Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > One of the things I loved about Zippos when I smoked was the cool noise they made; the snik of the lid going back and then the fwip of the wheel being turned, followed by the barely audible whoof of the flame taking life. This sentence just brought my father back to me, plain as day. Thanks for the memories, **madmonk**. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2015, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-back-to-the-days-of-refillable-wick-pocket-lighters-did-people-just-buy-a-quart-of-naphtha/725904/22 "2015-07-23T15:09:22Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > I buy a little bottle of Zippo lighter fluid at the bodega for about two bucks. It lasts me about a year. That more or less answers what I was wondering, which was how long it would take a smoker to burn through a quart of naptha in a Zippo? And the answer is, apparently several years. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2015, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-back-to-the-days-of-refillable-wick-pocket-lighters-did-people-just-buy-a-quart-of-naphtha/725904/23 "2015-07-23T15:17:46Z")
Everybody used Zippo lighters back in the day. I think every guy I knew in the military had one, some with unit logos on them. A Zippo and a John Wayne were in everyone’s pockets as a survival kit. I accidentally fell asleep on mine one night and woke up with some nasty blisters on my back from fluid seepage. I’m sure you all kept your extra flints stored under the flap of material in the lighter, right? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2015, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-back-to-the-days-of-refillable-wick-pocket-lighters-did-people-just-buy-a-quart-of-naphtha/725904/24 "2015-07-23T15:46:49Z")
> [@GusNSpot](#): > > Used about 3 different ones that would work at 65mph on my chopper. No windshield, etc. How did you smoke on a bike? In my experience, the wind makes a cigarette burn very, very quickly. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2015, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-back-to-the-days-of-refillable-wick-pocket-lighters-did-people-just-buy-a-quart-of-naphtha/725904/25 "2015-07-23T18:33:35Z")
I suspect non smokers today have no clue how many times people lit up. 😉 A pack a day wasn’t uncommon. That’s 20 lighter uses a day. A lot of those cigarettes weren’t fully consumed. Someone at their desk might get an important work call and the cigarette would get left forgotten in the ashtray. My dad finally quit in 1973. Before that he had cut back to half a pack a day for several years. He would make a carton last the correct number of days. Making sure he wasn’t smoking too much. The hard core chain smokers were the ones I never wanted to be around. 2 packs a day and they had one in their hand anytime you saw them. \ Smoking is a nasty habit. The lighters were cool. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2015, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-back-to-the-days-of-refillable-wick-pocket-lighters-did-people-just-buy-a-quart-of-naphtha/725904/26 "2015-07-23T18:45:05Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > Seriously, if you still smoke, why NOT own a Zippo? It’s one of the best products America ever developed. Let’s see you try to light up in a high wind with a pack of drugstore matches. For the same reason that people who write with pens don’t own a Mont Blanc. A cheapie does same job just fine in 99.9% of the cases and you don’t have to worry about misplacing an expensive item. ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2015, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-back-to-the-days-of-refillable-wick-pocket-lighters-did-people-just-buy-a-quart-of-naphtha/725904/27 "2015-07-23T20:48:50Z")
Expensive? Not [really](http://www.amazon.com/Zippo-Street-Chrome-Pocket-Lighter/dp/B000MT8Y98). ---
**Author:** ![swampspruce](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampspruce/32/261_2.png) [@swampspruce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampspruce)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2015, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-back-to-the-days-of-refillable-wick-pocket-lighters-did-people-just-buy-a-quart-of-naphtha/725904/28 "2015-07-23T21:17:16Z")
I gave my Dad’s Zippo with the RCAF logo to a girl to impress her. Stupid,stupid,stupid… I still have one but what I really would like to get are one of the [WW1 trench lighters](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrkIGQYa254). Those things are the shit! I know getting a replica is pretty easy but I’d like to get one from the era. ---
**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2015, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-back-to-the-days-of-refillable-wick-pocket-lighters-did-people-just-buy-a-quart-of-naphtha/725904/29 "2015-07-23T22:49:11Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > How did you smoke on a bike? In my experience, the wind makes a cigarette burn very, very quickly. Yepper it sure does. Did 3-4 in quick succession. Putting through town with the proper hand cupping, one or no hand riding, could almost last a normal amount of time. 🆒 I am an addictive personality, was not a wussy smoker, 2½ packs a day of ‘Kool filter kings.’ :eek: In haled cigars, pipe smoke. Never chewed or dipped. Was still way up on the stupid meter. Started on Lucky’s & Salem’s from the “C” rations we got in the ARMY (18 years old I was ) was 5-6 years before I went Kool. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2015, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-back-to-the-days-of-refillable-wick-pocket-lighters-did-people-just-buy-a-quart-of-naphtha/725904/30 "2015-07-23T22:50:19Z")
> [@kayT](#): > > Expensive? Not [really](http://www.amazon.com/Zippo-Street-Chrome-Pocket-Lighter/dp/B000MT8Y98). That’s definitely much cheaper than I imagined and admittedly no where near the Mont Blac range. I could still get like ten disposables for that price though and that’s not including fuel, wicks and flints. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2015, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-back-to-the-days-of-refillable-wick-pocket-lighters-did-people-just-buy-a-quart-of-naphtha/725904/31 "2015-07-23T23:55:01Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > A cheapie does same job just fine in 99.9% of the cases and you don’t have to worry about misplacing an expensive item. I have a hell of a time lighting up on windy days with a disposable, cardboard matches, and even wooden matches. A well-maintained Zippo never fails. I don’t worry about misplacing it because it’s always in my front left pocket, here. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2015, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-back-to-the-days-of-refillable-wick-pocket-lighters-did-people-just-buy-a-quart-of-naphtha/725904/32 "2015-07-23T23:59:15Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I suspect non smokers today have no clue how many times people lit up. 😉 A pack a day wasn’t uncommon. The guy who was my boss for my work/study job in college (and who was then my boss for my graduate assistantship) was a four-pack-a-day smoker. He’d alternate between filtered Lucky Strikes and unfiltered Camels. This was in the 1980s, when it was legal to smoke in an office, and all of the papers and books in his office were yellowish-brown. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2015, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-back-to-the-days-of-refillable-wick-pocket-lighters-did-people-just-buy-a-quart-of-naphtha/725904/33 "2015-07-24T06:03:58Z")
The true hard-core would use the still-glowing butt of the previous “smoke” to light the next. Done properly, one could avoid breathing non-smoke for 10-12 minutes. I timed myself at 6 min/smoke. ---
**Author:** ![MostlyUseless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MostlyUseless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MostlyUseless)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2015, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-back-to-the-days-of-refillable-wick-pocket-lighters-did-people-just-buy-a-quart-of-naphtha/725904/34 "2015-07-24T12:50:37Z")
I use a zippo every day. $10 from Walmart and $2 worth of lighter fluid has lasted upwards of a year. My zippo is better than a Bic because I throw nothing away and you don’t have to hold a fuel lever down. Great invention that Zippo. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-back-to-the-days-of-refillable-wick-pocket-lighters-did-people-just-buy-a-quart-of-naphtha/725904.md?page=1)