Nowadays, we are all familiar with the side effects of smoking on health. However, there was a time when people did not know the dangers of smoking, and even doctors recommended that people smoke to cure their illnesses. Tobacco companies incorporated actresses, doctors, and athletes in advertising tobacco products. Some inventors and tobacco companies created several cigarette accessories, such as automated lighters, remote smoking apparatus, and double-barrel cigarette holders. Scroll down below to see some of the strangest smoking accessories from the past, compiled by Bygonely.
You’ve got two lungs, so you’ve got to have two cigarettes. Of course, if you used this, you wouldn’t have two working lungs for very long.
The invention is the creation of Dr. Edward P. Delevante, who built a cigarette roller right into the bottom of the tobacco can.
This one is actually kind of neat.
It seems like you would end up grabbing the end of the cigarette, and the weight of this thing would break your cigarette in half.
Because a patient with two broken arms was unable to hold a cigarette, staff at a St. Louis, Mo., hospital devised the odd six-foot holder pictured at the right. A roommate lights a cigarette, places it in a hole in the end of the stick, and holds it to his friend’s lips. To raise his body for the purpose, the patient uses a support suspended above his bed, as shown. A nail in the end of the holder is also used to feed the patient candy.
How on earth is this actually easier than a normal lighter?
If you thought cell phone holsters were the dumbest-looking things on earth, think again.
When you miss the ashtray, you get to burn a nice hole in your vest, or end up with a pocket full of ashes.
Faced with the problem of carrying cigarettes when no pockets were available, a delegate to a recent nudist convention devised the holder shown at right. The leather case is strapped to the leg by means of an elastic band.
A novel cigarette case keeps tabs on the cigarettes your friends “borrow.” When you want a smoke yourself, press one button to open the case.
Wishing to read his newspaper without the annoyance of clouds of smoke getting in his eyes, an Englishman invented an ingenious device — a flexible cigarette holder of unusual length. Not only does it keep smoke out of the eyes; it also keeps tobacco particles from getting in the mouth.
This one is just interesting. If you’re stuck in solitary confinement, it is actually pretty useful.
This sounds like a useful idea, though it raises questions about what chemicals were used to make the paper waterproof.
The holder’s only redeeming quality is that if you squint hard enough, you could swear this was a black-and-white snapshot from one of those Star Trek: TNG episodes where Picard goes all gangster in the holodeck.
A cigar lighter attached to the automobile dashboard is pressed until a red glow appears and can then be removed.
Many inventions have been devised to ensure a dry smoke, but it remained for a clown appearing with a circus in England to solve the problem. An umbrella over the smoke keeps off water, and a spigot drains off excess moisture.
A strong wind does not interfere with the lighting, according to the maker. He claims his composition is free of objectionable taste in burning, overcoming the main problem faced by other inventors who have sought self-lighting cigarettes.
The cigarettes are arranged to appear like ornaments on the hat. The slots that hold the cigarettes are made extremely rigid to prevent breaking.
To make a cigarette holder that filters and cools the smoke, use a small corncob and a close-grained cork. Trim the cork so that it fits tightly into the bowl with about 1/4 inch of the cork projecting to make removal of stubs easy.
The dispenser is surprisingly small and is designed to take the place of individual holders and lighters that would occupy twice the space. The cigarette, with its end aglow, pops out of a small opening at the side.
Accidental wetting does not harm cigarettes of a type just placed on the market, because the paper they are made with is waterproof. In the test shown above, an experimenter held one of the new cigarettes in running water for three minutes. He then removed it and promptly smoked it as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Cigarettes made by the new process are said not to break apart at the tips from the moisture of the lips, a feature designed to appeal to smokers generally. Their waterproof quality is expected to be especially popular among bathers and campers, and they are designed to appeal to all who, for sport or work, are likely to be outdoors during bad weather. The treatment applied to the paper is said not to affect the aroma of the cigarette.
Because a smoker often has a cigarette but no match to light it, an inventor developed a self-lighting cigarette that eliminates the use of matches. The device consists of a container and its pack of specially prepared cigarettes. Each cigarette has an oxidized fiber ring added to the tip that ignites immediately, like an ordinary match, when the cigarette is rubbed on the side.
An electric cigarette lighter, shielded from the weather by a small roof, is an odd sight at a corner of a Beaumont, Texas, oil field. Fire is such a feared hazard here that workers are forbidden to carry matches. Violating this rule is considered almost as serious an offense as it would be in a powder plant. To encourage compliance, the owners of the field installed the lighter just outside the danger zone for the use of employees who wished to smoke during the noon hour. As a result, the field has an excellent safety record.
No larger than a woman’s lipstick, a new cigarette lighter works without flame or electricity. The smoker simply holds his cigarette against the porous top and inhales several times to light it. The secret is that a blended fuel containing methyl alcohol is drawn through a porous pill containing platinum. Catalytic action, similar to that of platinum gas-stove lighters, causes the pill to glow and light the cigarette. Wind cannot interfere with the lighter, which works as long as a cotton pad is kept saturated with fuel.
An easy-to-operate vending machine that sells one cigarette at a time while complying with the law has been marketed for use in public places. The cigarettes are sold directly from flat tins of fifty, and are made available to the buyer by the insertion of a penny in a slot.
A new cigarette has a novel filter tip made of rolled, pleated paper. Besides protecting the smoker’s lips from the annoyance of loose tobacco ends, the rolled-in filter is said to provide a cooler smoke.
Equipped with a self-tilting mechanism, this ashtray makes it impossible for a cigarette to burn down so far that the weight of the overhanging end causes it to tip off the tray and burn the table or rug. If the cigarette is left to burn for any length of time while on the rest, its heat causes a spring within the tray to expand and tilt, dumping the burning butt into the tray. This ashtray eliminates both the danger of damaging furniture from forgotten cigarettes and the risk of fire from the same cause.
A new cigarette case made of rubber is comfortable to carry. It is flexible enough to conform to the body, but stiff enough to protect the ten cigarettes it holds from damage. To remove one, the elastic cover flap is drawn back as shown at right. When released, it closes on its own.
Smoking a pipe is questionable enough health-wise, but sharing one — staring into the eyes of someone a foot away from you while you’re both surrounded by smoke — raises further questions.
Parenty’s Smoking Machine allowed Victorians, who loved smoking so much that they would sniff tobacco smoke like perfume, to pipe tobacco smoke throughout their homes.
Beyond Parenty’s Smoking Machine, the multi-pack cigarette holder made it possible to smoke several cigarettes at once for a stronger nicotine effect. These devices have since fallen out of use.
Excess nicotine causes violent vomiting, dizziness, and severe headache.
The vertical cigarette holder releases smoke above the smoker’s head, directing it away from people nearby.
The all-weather cigarette holder protects the flame during rainy days.
The ashtray at the bottom keeps ash off your carpet, collecting it on the tray until you accidentally spill it over your dinner plate.
The lover’s cigarette holder allows two people to puff smoke from the same pipe.
This is a very long cigarette holder. Possible uses include: the lighter is with your friend sitting two rows ahead in the theater, or cigarette smoke makes your wife’s eyes water.
The dispenser holds one package of cigarettes at a time and is operated by easy pressure of the forefinger against a lever. The cigarette, with its end aglow, pops out of a small opening at the side.
The novel cigarette case shown contains not only smoking materials, but also a complete checkerboard and pieces. The white and black pieces are small pegs that fit into holes in the squares to prevent them from being lost.
The driver drops a cigarette into a conventional opening and pushes a button located on the side. The button pops up to indicate that the cigarette is lit and ready to be smoked. The entire process can be done without taking one’s eyes off the road.
The lighter is fully automatic and smokers need only to unscrew the left end of the lighter and touch the other end to the cigarette. It was filled with a liquid called “Vulcanit,” and manufacturers claim that one filling will last for one week. It does not use a flint or wick and is not much bigger than a cigarette.
