GREETINGS, FEEL FREE 

TO

"SHOP NAKED."©

RETRO SOUVENIR

WOOD CIGARETTE CASE

POCKET SIZE

FROM THE RYUKYUS BAZAAR

OKINAWA JAPAN

POST WWII ERA OCCUPATION

MILITARY SOUVENIR

MEASURES ABOUT 9cm X 8cm

ORIGINAL PAPER LABEL REMAINS

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FYI 

A cigarette (/ˌsɪɡəˈrɛt/; from the French word cigarette [siɡaʁɛt], meaning "small cigar") is a small cylinder of finely cut tobacco leaves rolled in thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end and allowed to smoulder; its smoke is inhaled from the other end, which is held in or to the mouth; in some cases a cigarette holder may be used as well. Most modern manufactured cigarettes are filtered and include reconstituted tobacco and other additives.

The term cigarette, as commonly used, refers to a tobacco cigarette but can apply to similar devices containing other herbs, such as cloves or cannabis. A cigarette is distinguished from a cigar by its smaller size, use of processed leaf, and paper wrapping, which is normally white, though other colors are occasionally available. Cigars are typically composed entirely of whole-leaf tobacco.

Rates of cigarette smoking vary widely, and have changed considerably over the course of history — since cigarettes were first widely used in the mid-20th century. While rates of smoking have over time leveled off or declined in the developed world, they continue to rise in developing nations.

Cigarettes carry serious health risks, which are more prevalent than in other tobacco products. Nicotine, the primary psychoactive chemical in tobacco and therefore cigarettes, is addictive. About half of cigarette smokers die of tobacco-related disease and lose on average 14 years of life. Cigarette use by pregnant women has also been shown to cause birth defects, including low birth weight, fetal abnormalities, and premature birth. Second-hand smoke from cigarettes has been shown to be injurious to bystanders, which has led to legislation that has prohibited smoking in many workplaces and public areas. Cigarettes are a frequent source of fires leading to loss of lives in private homes, which has prompted the European Union and the United States to ban cigarettes that are not fire standard compliant by 2011.

The earliest forms of cigarettes were similar to their predecessor, the cigar. Cigarettes appear to have had antecedents in Mexico and Central America around the 9th century in the form of reeds and smoking tubes. The Maya, and later the Aztecs, smoked tobacco and various psychoactive drugs in religious rituals and frequently depicted priests and deities smoking on pottery and temple engravings. The cigarette and the cigar were the most common methods of smoking in the Caribbean, Mexico and Central and South America until recent times.

The North American, Central American and South American cigarette used various plant wrappers; when it was brought back to Spain, maize wrappers were introduced, and by the 17th century, fine paper. The resulting product was called papelate and is documented in Goya's paintings La Cometa, La Merienda en el Manzanares, and El juego de la pelota a pala (18th century).

By 1830, the cigarette had crossed into France, where it received the name cigarette; and in 1845, the French state tobacco monopoly began manufacturing them.

Production climbed markedly when a cigarette-making machine was developed in the 1880s by James Albert Bonsack which vastly increased the productivity of cigarette companies, who went from making approximately 40,000 hand-rolled cigarettes daily to around 4 million.

In the English-speaking world, the use of tobacco in cigarette form became increasingly widespread during and after the Crimean War, when British soldiers began emulating their Ottoman Turkish comrades and Russian enemies, who had begun rolling and smoking tobacco in strips of old newspaper for lack of proper cigar-rolling leaf. This was helped by the development of tobaccos suitable for cigarette use, and by the development of the Egyptian cigarette export industry.

Cigarettes may have been initially used in a manner similar to pipes and cigars and not inhaled; for evidence, see the Lucky Strike ad campaign asking consumers "Do You Inhale?" from the 30s. As cigarette tobacco became milder and more acidic inhaling may have become perceived as more agreeable. On the other hand, Moltke noticed in the 1830s (cf. Unter dem Halbmond) that Ottomans (and he himself) inhaled the Turkish tobacco and Latakia from their pipes (which are both initially sun-cured, acidic leaf varieties).

As early as 1888, cigarettes were described colloquially as "coffin nails."

The widespread smoking of cigarettes in the Western world is largely a 20th-century phenomenon – at the start of the 20th century the per capita annual consumption in the USA was 54 cigarettes (with less than 0.5% of the population smoking more than 100 cigarettes per year), and consumption there peaked at 4,259 per capita in 1965. At that time about 50% of men and 33% of women smoked (defined as smoking more than 100 cigarettes per year). By 2000, consumption had fallen to 2,092 per capita, corresponding to about 30% of men and 22% of women smoking more than 100 cigarettes per year, and by 2006 per capita consumption had declined to 1,691; implying that about 21% of the population smoked 100 cigarettes or more per year.

German doctors were the first to identify the link between smoking and lung cancer which led to the first anti-tobacco movement in Nazi Germany. During World War I and World War II, cigarettes were rationed to soldiers. During the Vietnam War, cigarettes were included with C-ration meals. In 1975 the U.S. government stopped putting cigarettes in military rations. During the second half of the 20th century, the adverse health effects of tobacco smoking started to become widely known and text-only health warnings became commonplace on cigarette packets. Warnings became prevalent but unpopular, mainly due to the political influences held by tobacco growers. The United States has not implemented graphical cigarette warning labels, which are considered a more effective method to communicate to the public the dangers of cigarette smoking. Canada, Mexico, Belgium, Sweden, Thailand, Malaysia, India, Pakistan, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Greece, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Hungary, the United Kingdom, France, Romania, Singapore and Turkey however, have both textual warnings and graphic visual images displaying, among other things, the damaging effects tobacco use has on the human body.

The cigarette has evolved much since its conception; for example, the thin bands that travel transverse to the "axis of smoking" (thus forming circles along the length of the cigarette) are alternate sections of thin and thick paper to facilitate effective burning when being drawn, and retard burning when at rest. Synthetic particulate filters may remove some of the tar before it reaches the smoker.

The 'holy grail' for cigarette companies has been the quest for a cancer free cigarette. On record, the closest historical attempt was produced by a scientist James Mold. Under the name project TAME, he produced the XA cigarette. However, in 1978, his project was terminated.

(GALLERY PICTURES 5,6 FOR DISPLAY ONLY)

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