Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

A friend of mine and I both have 2106 Clippers. His is a 1946, mine a 1947.
His cigarette lighter in the back seat is a cat eye. Mine is standard chrome.
Is his original? Did Packard drop the cat eye in 1947?
Just trivia, I guess..

The next generation of lighters after the corded lighters were so-called cat's eye and the cat's eye was a functional feature. You had to press them fully inserted into the socket and hold them in place to make the electrical connection and when the element got hot you could see the glow thru the translucent "cat's eye" and knew thus knew the lighter was ready to be withdrawn (thus breaking the electrical connection) and used. As soon as we had the type of lighter we know of today the cat's eye feature was meaningless and discontinued, perhaps around 1938 or so but in any case prior to 1941. I suppose it might be possible that a couple of 1939 Twelves using left-over 1938 bodies might have still had a cat's eye lighter - someone will perhaps come along with the exact date.

Cat's eye lighters from 1934 Packard; the two rear lighters (one with ash tray on each side) were slightly different than the single front lighter.

Attach file:

---

  (73.94 KB)