People and Organizations That Steel Our Heart

George Blaisdell

George Blaisdell has affected many of ours lives whether we’re aware of it or not. In 1932, Blaisdell founded Zippo Manufacturing, and later that year invented the Zippo lighter that is still in use today. Blaisdell was born in Bradford, Pa., in 1895 to a family already in the machinery business. He only had about a fifth-grade education and was remembered for walking out of his fifth-grade classroom, vowing never to return to school. His family then sent him to a military academy in the hope of instilling an education and a set of rules on their young boy, but that too failed. He was dismissed after only two years in attendance.

Following Blaisdell’s time in the military academy, he went to work for his father’s machinery company, learning skills that would become crucial when he got older and opened his own manufacturing firm. When World War I broke out in Europe, Blaisdell went to serve his country and returned some years later to own the family business. His tenure as owner of Blaisdell Machinery Company was shortlived, however, and he sold it in 1920 to invest in the then-booming oil market.

Finding the oil industry to be a bust (for him, anyway), Blaisdell was trying hard to figure out how to continue feeding his family. At this point, the Depression had hit, and Bradford was no exception when it came to feeling the losses. Nevertheless, Blaisdell had what many people of the time considered to be a crazy idea: starting his own business. He wanted to manufacture lighters for the up-and-coming tobacco industry. Part of that plan was to sell them for almost two dollars, or the amount it would cost to feed an entire family. No one thought it would work, but he borrowed money from several different people to start Zippo Manufacturing. “There was no Plan B,” his daughter is quoted as saying on Zippo’s Web site.

Blaisdell’s idea not only seemed crazy, but nearly everyone around him was convinced of its failure. Without a second thought they tossed his idea aside, but because he was persistent and dedicated his company was a success. This year Zippo is celebrating its 75th anniversary and boasts more than 450 million lighters produced since 1932. In fact, Zippo lighters are available in about 150 different countries around the world. Blaisdell’s idea has come a long way from the “foolish, harebrained” beginning in the middle of the Depression.

www.zippo.com. 2007. 14 April 2007.

[People & Organizations That Steel Our Heart Main]