Show A QUEER CIGAR LIGHTER flint chemically by hydrogen Hy drouen chiango herald the rocky cigar store is the possessor bif quite a novelty in the way of a cigar lighter it is a contrivance invented by an old german professor named Doeber ein at jena a small german town in 1810 it is hardly possible the professor intended bis invention for ft cigar lighter but it seems to be better adapted for that purpose than for anything else in appear ance this machine is a two quart glass jar having a top cap ot brass in the centar of which is a valve opened by pressing down n the leaver and opposite anil about an inch from the opening is a email tube containing a platinum plate about the size of a nickel in the jar is a mixture of vitriol and water and pendant from the top by a brass wire is a small piece of zinc this zinc is so acted on by the vitriol that it extracts the hydrogen from the water and forms a gass pressing the lever permits this gas to escape and its force carries it to the platinum plat plate exciting it at once to intense beat and the heat thus generated ignites the gas and thus a flame t veritable payet is created what use the old professor intended to put this contrivance to is hard now to conjecture but it is a remarkable fact that the machine was invented si long ago and yet has remained in obscurity the little engine creates considerable talk among the electricians of chicago many of whom examined it |