Pipe smoking

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sandro Pertini smoking a pipe.

Pipe smoking is the practice of tasting or inhaling the smoke produced by
burning a substance, most commonly tobacco, in a pipe. It is the oldest
traditional form of smoking.

Contents [hide]
1 History
2 Pipes
2.1 Water pipes
3 Culture
4 Notable pipe smokers
4.1 Men
4.2 Women
5 Health effects
6 Gallery
7 See also
7.1 Substance-specific pipes
8 References
9 External links
History[edit]

Protohistoric Catlinite pipe, probably Ioway, from the Wanampito site.

A number of Native American cultures had pipe-smoking traditions, long before
the arrival of Europeans. Tobacco was often smoked, generally for ceremonial
purposes, though other mixtures of sacred herbs were also common. The narrow
calumet (called a "peace pipe" by Europeans), was smoked in ceremony to seal
covenants and treaties. Tobacco was introduced to Europe from the Americas in
the 16th century and spread around the world rapidly.[1] In Asia during the 19th
century, opium (which previously had only been eaten) was added to tobacco
and smoked in pipes. Madak (the mixture of opium and tobacco) turned out to be
far more addictive than orally-ingested opium, leading to social problems in
China which culminated in the First (18391842) and Second Opium War (1856
1860).[1]

According to Alfred Dunhill, Africans have had a long tradition of smoking hemp
in gourd pipes, asserting that by 1884 the King of the Baluka tribe of the Congo
had established a "riamba" or hemp-smoking cult in place of fetish-worship.
Enormous gourd pipes were used.[2]

In the 20th century, pipe smoking has been adopted as a preferred method of
inhaling a variety of psychoactive drugs, and some claim it is a more intense
method of ingestion. Smokeable crack cocaine has a reputation for being more
addictive than cocaine's insufflated form. Similarly, methamphetamine has
gained popularity in a crystalline form which when smoked in a pipe lets the user
avoid the painful nasal irritation of snorting. When not applied to a cigarette or
joint, the liquid form of PCP is typically smoked in a pipe with tobacco or
cannabis.[3]

Pipes[edit]

A selection of various pipes on a circular pipe rack

Pipes have been fashioned from an assortment of materials including briar, clay,
ceramic, corncob, glass, meerschaum, metal, gourd, stone, wood and various
combinations thereof, most notably, the classic English calabash pipe.

The size of a pipe, particularly the bowl, depends largely on what is intended to
be smoked in it. Large western-style tobacco pipes are used for strong-tasting,
harsh tobaccos, the smoke from which is usually not inhaled. Smaller pipes such
as the midwakh or kiseru are used to inhale milder tobaccos such as dokha and
kizami or other substances such as cannabis and opium.

Water pipes[edit]
Water pipes bubble smoke through water to cool and wash the smoke. The two
basic types are stationary hookahs, with one or more long flexible drawtubes,
and portable bongs.

Culture[edit]

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challenged and removed. (January 2010)

Pipe sculpture in Przemyl, Poland

The customs, vocabulary and etiquette that surround pipe smoking culture vary
across the world and depend both on the people who are smoking and the
substance being smoked.

For example, in many places in Europe and North America, tobacco pipe smoking
has sometimes been seen as genteel or dignified and has given rise to a variety
of customized accessories and even apparel such as the smoking jacket, and the
Pipe Smoker of the Year award in the UK, as well as the term kapnismology ("the
study of smoke").[4]

The ceremonial smoking of tobacco or other herbs, as a form of prayer, is still

practiced in a number of Native American religious traditions.

Cannabis culture has its own pipe smoking traditions which differ from tobacco
pipe smoking. For example, unlike tobacco smokers, cannabis users frequently
pass a single pipe among two or more partners.

In recent years, "hookah bars" have appeared in college towns and urban areas
in America[5] and Europe.

Notable pipe smokers[edit]

A number of real and fictional persons are strongly associated with their habit of
pipe smoking.

Men[edit]
Albert Einstein was known for smoking a pipe. He once said, "I believe that pipe
smoking contributes to a somewhat calm and objective judgment in all human
affairs."[6]
Johann Sebastian Bach wrote a song about his fondness for pipe smoking: So oft
ich meine Tobackspfeife BWV 515a.
Ludwig van Beethoven, composer
Vincent van Gogh, Dutch Post-Impressionist painter.
Earl Bertrand Russell.
Bing Crosby, American singer
George Gissing. English author
Che Guevara was known to enjoy a pipe from time to time in addition to his usual
cigar.
Sherlock Holmes is explicitly described as a pipe smoker.[7]

Santa Claus, is described thus (1839): "The stub of a pipe he held clenched in his
teeth."
Subcomandante Marcos.
Herbert Hoover, 31st President of the United States[8]
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States
Gerald R. Ford, 38th President of the United States[9]
Joseph Stalin with a pipe was a common image: "Photos of him appeared daily in
the Soviet press, now in genial pipe-smoking profile, now walking with his
comrades..."[10]
Helmut Schmidt, Chancellor of West Germany.[11]
Harold Wilson, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.[11]
Tony Benn, British politician
J. R. R. Tolkien loved pipe smoking; The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings have
several detailed scenes of characters engaging in it.
General Douglas MacArthur was often photographed with his signature corncob
pipe
Sandro Pertini, President of the Italian Republic 1978-85
Mark Twain, American author, a.k.a. Samuel Clemens, writer of Huckleberry Finn
favored Missouri Meershaum corncob pipes. He was notoriously partial to a
special blend of "Cuban leaf" pipe tobacco, remarking once that "If I cannot
smoke in heaven, then I shall not go."[12]
William Faulkner, American author. Faulkner was known to be an enthusiastic
proponent of pipe smoking.[13]
Ernest Hemingway, American author
Eric Morecambe, British comedian
Jean-Paul Sartre, French philosopher
Clark Gable, American film actor
Hugh Hefner, American magazine publisher
Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, American blues musician. An avid pipe smoker,
the Texas-blues guitarist often sold his own proprietary blend of pipe tobacco as
well as autographed pipes at his concerts and shows.[14]
Sparky Anderson, American baseball manager[15]
Edward VIII (Duke of Windsor)[16]
Samuel J. Seymour, the last surviving person who had been present in Ford's
Theater the night of the assassination of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln on April
14, 1865.
C.S. Lewis, British author, theologian, professor

Popeye, fictional cartoon sailor