Products that Enable Smoking
1844 Safety Matches
After many attempts to develop a match that was non-toxic, Swedish inventors Gustaf Erik Pasch and Johan Edvard
Lundström improved design and manufacturing of the “safety” match, making smoking more convenient. In 1864, the first
automatic match producing machine was developed. Strike anywhere matches were invented in 1889.
1870s Cigarette Holder/Mouth Piece
The cigarette mouth piece was originally invented to keep tobacco flakes out of the smoker’s mouth, to keep cigarette paper from sticking and tearing on the smoker’s lips, to prevent finger stains, and to keep secondhand smoke from stinging the smoker’s eyes. Cigarette holders came in varying lengths and fashions. They were popular from the 1920s and into the 1970s.
1884 Cardboard packs
The first cardboard push-pack was introduced in 1884 and was designed for holding 10 cigarettes or small cigars. In 1954 Philip Morris re-introduced its hard pack – flip top box design when it launched its new Marlboro filtered brand.
1880s Improved Cigarette Lighter
The earliest lighters used a “catalyst” reaction to ignite a flame. The design was improved when steel and flint were used to spark a wick soaked with a flammable fluid, like naphtha. In 1889 the Magic Pocket Lamp Co. and others
improved the safety of personal lighters. In 1926, the automatic flame pocket lighter was born with Aronson’s “one finger-one motion” lighter. In 1932, the Zippo company created its flip open design that became a classic. In the 1950s Zippo began to use butane fuel for flame control and less odor. Bic sold its first throw-away lighter in 1973. Many current lighters use a piezoelectric spark for ignition.
1926 First Cigarette Pack Vending Machine
Rowe invented the world’s first automatic vending machine for cigarettes using a confiscated moonshine whiskey still and a cigar box.
In 1928, with Robert Z. Greene, William H. Rowe founded the Rowe Manufacturing Company, Inc., in Los Angeles, the first company in the US to manufacture cigarette vending machines.
1920s The Automobile Lighter
The electric cigar-lighter was invented and patented in the early 1880s by the German inventor Friedrich Wilhelm Schindler. As cigarette sales overtook cigars the device was renamed the “cigarette lighter.” In the 1920s the first lighter with a heated coil was wired into a car battery and the automotive lighter was born. Patented versions of the car lighter also lit and dispensed a
cigarettes or cigar as needed.
1931 Cellophane and Cigarettes
Swedish scientist Jacques E. Brandenberger invented cellophane in 1900. DuPont Chemicals acquired the U.S. rights to the clear wrapping material in 1923. R. J. Reynolds and Benson & Hedges were the first companies to use cellophane for cigarette packaging in 1931 touting the extra freshness of the tobacco, because the cellophane added to the product’s shelf life
Cigarette Cases
By the turn of the 20th century the cigarette case had become an essential personal accessory. In addition to the ordinary commercial market even the finest jewelry houses, such as Fabergé, produced lavishly decorative sterling silver cases. During the 1920s and 30s American cigarette tins stored 50 cigarettes. They were sometimes referred to by the nickname “flat fifties.” In 2003 the European Union witnessed a huge resurgence in the sale of cigarette cases used to hide the severe black-bordered warning label that was mandatory on all cigarette packs.