Fire-Breathing Woman
In April 1940, Linda Lancaster Dodge Stratton was granted a patent for the "cigar or cigarette lighter" shown below. Its novel feature was that it was shaped like a fire-breathing woman. Or, as Stratton put it, "in the shape of a human figure artistically posed with the igniting means located in the mouth and ignited and extinguished by the movement of the head to open and close the mouth thereof through the manual movement of the arms toward and from the mouth."
It kinda looks like a fire-breathing Barbie. Though it predates Barbie by almost 20 years.
The patent said this woman was to be "constructed in a pocket or a table size." It would definitely be a conversation piece to have a table-size version of her in your home.
It kinda looks like a fire-breathing Barbie. Though it predates Barbie by almost 20 years.
The patent said this woman was to be "constructed in a pocket or a table size." It would definitely be a conversation piece to have a table-size version of her in your home.
Comments
Great . . . now I have to go through the day with the mental image of how, today, they'd make it so you bend it at the waist and flames would shoot from the backside. They'd probably put some kind of reed in the gas flow so it'd have the appropriate sound effect. Thanks, thanks for that. I hope you get visited by the Baby Shark earwig.
Posted by Phideaux on 04/04/21 at 06:36 AM
An odd coincidence: the Latin teacher at my public high school had the same name as one of the attorneys whose names are on this patent: Hyman Berman.
Posted by Fritz on 04/04/21 at 08:35 AM
The configuration resembles something else that those with dirty minds will spot right away...
Posted by Brian on 04/07/21 at 01:50 PM
@Brian -- I don't have the slightest idea what you could possible mean (that's my story, and I'm sticking to it!).
Posted by Phideaux on 04/07/21 at 08:03 PM
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Category: Inventions | Patents | Smoking and Tobacco | 1940s | Women