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origins of tobacco
Did you know that the Russians caught smoking tobacco had their noses cut off? And this famous quote from King’s James I of England on smoking was published in the 16th century:
“a custom loathsome to the eye
hateful to the nose
harmful to the brain
dangerous to the lungs
and in the black
stinking fume thereof
nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless.” That is smoking in the old World.
It is believed that sailors from the Americas took smoking to the ports of Europe way back in the late 15th and 16th century. While the North Americans were believed to inhale the fumes of tobacco through a Pipe the Spaniards were thought to have rolled the Tobacco leaf into a Cigar. The aristocrats of the time were the patrons of tobacco which helped smoking spread rapidly across the continents. By the late 17th century tobacco was being actively grown in India China Japan South East Asia the Middle East and West Africa.
While Frederick the Great carried large amounts of snuff on his person the Arabians popularized the water pipe or hookah. These were the different forms of consuming tobacco then. By mid-19th century
Smoking tobacco had spread all over the world. It had become a symbol of manliness. There were a whole lot of things that were associated with the ritual of smoking. The literature of the time captures the pipes cleaners holders spittoons ashtrays pouches jars and lighters. Can you believe that there were smoking jackets chairs hats slippers? And then you had a ‘smoking room”.
Tobacco was believed to be a divine pant by certain peoples of those times. Lore has it that they could connect to the spirits. While some used it to cure toothache and earache the nicotine in tobacco was believed to cure cancer.
The elite in Europe were taken in by the hand-rolled tobacco. In 1880 James Bonsack invented the cigarette rolling machine in US of A. It took James Buchanan Duke who founded the American Tobacco Company (ATC) in 1890 to come out with mass produced inexpensive cigarettes that cut deep into the pipe smoking communities of those days. It reduced even tobacco chewing. In 1883 Henry Wills started manufacturing cigarettes in Bristol Britain and began to dominate the market. The Sherman Anti Trust Law broke down the business.
The inexpensive mass produced cigarettes caught the fancy of the youth who adopted it quite quickly. Overnight we had a Marlboro man strong and virile.
All in alone one could say 1950’s was the golden era of the cigarettes. All the social classes began to smoke and even women embraced the cigarette with open lips.
Did you know that Henry Ford and Adolf Hitler were against smoking tobacco? That is when the Anti-Smoking movement took steam. Links were established between Cancer and tobacco and the Anti-Smoking Lobby started gaining ground. By 20th century tobacco began to be consumed in various forms and by 21st century it was proved beyond doubt that nicotine in tobacco is addictive and is the cause for deadliest diseases that often led to death. Tobacco triggered high blood pressure caused heart attack often lung disease led to cancer and affected pregnancies.
A time has come to ‘kick the habit”. This led to finding other alternatives to better health and the need to wean away people from Nicotine. The smoking cessation programs were brought in along with behavioral intervention and nicotine replacement therapy. Nicotine patches gum lozenges nasal sprays inhalers sublingual tablets began to appear.
In 2003 or thereabouts a new device appeared on the scene. It is the Electronic cigarette. Ruyan patented his model in 2003 and soon the Chinese started mass producing these devices. When translated into English Ruyan means “smoking anywhere”. This device has many variations and has vast appeal for all those advocates of nicotine replacement therapy.