Lighters are so much fun A lighter is a device used to create fire with the intent to ignite another substance such as a cigarette, smoking pipe, bong, hookah, crack 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), as well as a means of ignition and some provision for extinguishing the flame, either by depriving it of air or of fuel. 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, and to conveniently extinguish the flame. 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 piezoelectric crystal, generating a voltaic arc. In naptha lighters the liquid is volatile enough that flammable gas is present as soon as the top of the lighter is opened.