At the same time, he set up a laboratory in the basement of his parents' home where he experimented with plating processes and turned out money-making items while he devised ways of metalizing common items in a durable finish of matte gold, including flowers, butterflies, animal claws, and baby shoes.

[2] Aronson gained public recognition when he won an award in 1893 from the Belgian government for the creation of the first non-toxic match, winning 50,000 francs ($10,000 U.S. dollars).

[citation needed] In 1910 Aronson received his first patent for a pocket lighter which used a flint material containing a mixture of cerium and iron.

Within three years he received a patent for a “pyrophorous lighter” which was capable of producing and sustaining a flame by means of a steel-tipped wand fitted with a cloth-wick saturated in petroleum ether.

It was a great success, demand shortly exceeding supply, spurring Aronson to patent it and design other products around the invention, which were marketed under the Ronson brand name.

The company also produced a variety of high quality lamps, book ends, statues and other decorative items prized today for their detail in the collector marketplace.

[6] Aronson ran for mayor of Newark in 1912, was a longtime treasurer for the Essex County Republican Party, and became a bank executive.