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Vintage Cigarette Lighters

& Ashtrays, too!

This site does not support or encourage tobacco use. This site is a reference for collectors or others researching antique cigarette lighters and ashtrays.
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Bowers Lighters

Organized in 1928 by Earnest Charles Bowers, Bowers Tool and Die Company, of Kalamazoo, Michigan, is a good example of a family owned company that has survived the ups and downs of an often volatile and strenuous seventy years of dedication to success.

Lighters: Army-Navy Flameless Tinder Cord Lighter (in black, brass, and chrome) beginning in 1942 - Peli-Can and Lamp Lighter produced in the early 1950s - Kalamazoo Slide Sleeve (3 versions: round tube beginning in 1930, flat/oval tube beginning in the late 1930s, flip action AND, during WW2 a steel version was produced because of a lack of brass) - Storm Master tube lighters with both flat and rounded ends were produced in the mid-1930s - No.10 introduced in the early 1950s - Striker Pipe which was a pipe with a striker lighter incorporated, also in the 1950s - Aluminum "Zippo-like" lighters began production in 1955 and the name was changed from Storm Master to Sure Fire - Bowers No 15 Table Lighter, a zinc die-cast model with a flip top somewhat like Zippo; produced in the early 1960s - some lighters were produced in Japan under the Bowers name, also, after WW2. One of these was the AF100 table model which was similar to the Colibri Monopol.

Bowers also produced lighters in a plant in St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada between 1946 and 1948. These are very difficult to find.

SOURCE: http://www.bowers-mfg.com/about-us.html