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 naphtha or liquid butane under pressure).
Lighters using naphtha 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 piezoelectriccrystal. 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 (naphtha type), or the valve is released (butane type).
Car cigarette lighters
Most cars are equipped with electric cigarette lighters. This device consists of a thin coil of nichrome wire, which has very high current (15_20 amps) passed through it when the device is activated. The heating element becomes glowing orange hot in seconds, and is capable of lighting cigarettes and tinder (among other things) on fire. The lighter's socket doubles as a 12 volt power outlet that can be used for many purposes; for example, notebook computers, mobile phones, PDAs, USB adapters, digital audio players, etc can be connected to a lighter charger and be powered or have their batteries (re)charged.
Technically speaking, "lighter socket" is not even an accurate term since in many cases those extra sockets won't work with a cigarettelighter, according to Ali Elhaj, president of Casco, an auto parts company that claims to have invented the automobile cigarettelighter.
Of course it also has, in the dash, a regular "12-volt power source." That's a cigarettelighter socket to you and me. Oh, and there's another one, the "not-really-a-lighter" type, hidden inside a compartment in the center console.
In many cars, the you don't get the actual cigarettelighter device in them unless you ask for the "smokers package." Brauer, of Edmunds.com, said he has apocalyptic nightmares of a world without real cigarettelighters in those cigarettelighter holes.
Feeds |
Contact