Pipe smoking

Sandro Pertini smoking a pipe.

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

History

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

A number of Native American cultures have pipe-smoking traditions, which have been part of their cultures since long before the arrival of Europeans. Tobacco is often smoked, generally for ceremonial purposes, though other mixtures of sacred herbs are also common. Various types of ceremonial pipes have been smoked in ceremony to seal covenants and treaties, most notably treaties of peace (hence the misnomer, "peace pipe"). 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 (1839–1842) 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

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

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

Pipe sculpture in Przemyśl, 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

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

Men

• Clement Attlee, British prime minister (1945-1951)
• Martin Van Buren, 8th US President (1837-1841)
• 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 an aria 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, the fictional detective, 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]
• Stephen Fry English author, actor and comedian
• 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
• Dag Hammarskjöld Swedish diplomat, spiritual diarist and second Secretary General of the United Nations Organisation
• 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
• Thabo Mbeki, Second democratic South African President
• 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
• Edwin Hubble, American Astronomer known for discovering Universal Expansion
• Popeye, fictional cartoon sailor
• Will Self, British author

Women

• Millicent Fenwick, American politician
• George Sand, French writer
• Virginia Woolf, English writer

More examples can be found in the Pipe Smoker of the Year list.

Health effects

The overall health risks are 10% higher in pipe smokers than in nonsmokers.^[17] However, pipe or cigar smokers who are former-cigarette smokers might retain a habit of smoke inhalation.^[17] In such cases, there is a 30% increase in the risk of heart disease and a nearly three times greater risk of developing COPD.^[17] In addition, there is a causal relationship between pipe smoking and mortality due to lung and other cancers, as well as periodontal problems, such as tooth and bone loss.^[17]

However, all tobacco products deliver nicotine to the central nervous system, and there is a confirmed risk of dependence. Many forms of tobacco use are associated with a significantly increased risk of morbidity and premature mortality due to tobacco-related diseases^[17] but a WHO committee on tobacco has also acknowledged the evidence is inconclusive regarding health consequences for snuff consumers.^[18]

Gallery

• Click on image for larger view
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  Gerrit Dou: self-portrait with long-stemmed clay pipe (1645).

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  Man smoking kiseru. Cover illustration of the novel Komon gawa ("Elegant chats on fabric design") by Santō Kyōden, 1790.

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  Georgian composer, Meliton Balanchivadze smoking pipe.

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  Extended mouthpiece for pipe smoking woman, who is performing in a circus. New York, 1930.

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  Arab man smoking pipe, late 1800s.

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  Various styles of Native American ceremonial pipes.

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  Lord Wilson.

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  Model, 1894, by F. Galofré.

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  Portrait of a fiesherman, 1890 by Dionís Baixeras

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  Portrait of a muslim, 1880 by Simó Gómez

See also

Substance-specific pipes

• Cannabis pipe
• Opium pipe
• Tobacco pipe
• One hitter (smoking)
• Midwakh
• Kiseru
• Sebsi
• Chillum

References

External links

• Smoking Pipes, Estate Pipes, Pipe Tobacco: Smoking Pipes, Pipe Smoking, Estate Pipes.
• Pipes: Logos & Markings: Pipe brands by pictures.
• Pipe Smoking A history of pipe smoking and its modern day practice.