Lighter

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A lighter is a device used to create fire with the intent to ignite another substance such as a cigarette, smoking pipe, or charcoal in a grill. It consists of a metal or plastic container filled with lighter fluid (usually naptha or liquid butane under pressure).

Lighters using naptha have a wick which is immersed in the fluid and becomes saturated. This type usually has a fiber packing material which absorbs the liquid to keep it from leaking. They also must have an enclosed top to prevent the volatile liquid from evaporating. Butane lighters have a valved orifice that meters the butane as it escapes as a gas.

A spark is created by striking metal against a "flint", or by pressing a button that compresses a piezoelectric crystal. In naptha lighters the liquid is volatile enough that flammable gas is present as soon as the top of the lighter is opened. Butane lighters combine the striking action with the opening of the valve to release gas. The spark ignites the flammable gas causing a flame to come out of the of the lighter which continues until either the top is closed (naptha type), or the valve is released (butane type).

See also match, Zippo (naptha type), Bic (butane type).

Lighter riding the current under Tower Bridge, circa 1928

A lighter is also a type of flat-bottomed barge used to transfer goods to and from moored ships. Lighters were traditionally unpowered and were moved and steered using long oars called "sweeps", with their motive power provided by water currents. They were operated by highly skilled workers called lightermen and were a characteristic sight in London's docks until about the 1960s, when technological changes made lighters largely redundant. The name itself is of uncertain origin, but is believed to possibly derive from an old Dutch or German word, lichten (to lighten or unload).