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Cigarette smoking

Anyone have a Colibre lighter ? One of those slimline ones. I loved mine. The press mechanism gave a wonderfully subtle ‘click’ when pressed. The height of sophistication! Viv.
 
I had a Ronson, then a Dunhill, but finished up with an electric cigarette lighter (early 1960s), a strange beast you slid at the top a wire ignite, which lit the wick, but for the life of me I can remember very little about it. I think it also had a light in it. I also craved a Zippo, but by the time I could get round to buying one, I had given up smoking. Nowadays there seems to be no elegance or design in lighters because they are all these throw away ones. For a while I had a cigarette case with a built in lighter (I think it was a Ronson), but it was to heavy to carry around and also tended to crush the posher cigarettes. At an antique fair recently I was horrified to see a Ronson Variflame for sale at £60.00. Aaaah!!!! you've all done it again, memories are made of this, do you remember those big Ronson Queen Anne table lighters?
I still have a tin of lighter fuel for emergency paint, grease and other assorted spill cleaning.

Bob
The electric lighter was made by Magnalux and also had a torch in it. Remember Mosda from Cannings days, they had a barrelling plant I think.
Bob
 
John thank you for waking my memory up, I am sure the lighter from your dad is petrol fueled.
This was not the same petrol you purchased at the Esso station, it was more refined as not to smoke when burnt, it came in a small can from the newsagents and was about the size of a 3 in 1 oil can, but could also be purchased in a single refill charge that was a capsule with a teat at the end you cut off.
My pop had a Ronson gas lighter for ever a slick almost aero inspired.
I think the fuel was called Ronsul came with adapters so you could fill whatever make and style of lighter you owned
Most people there days use some kind off disposalable lighter, gone are the times of fags being high times and fashionable.
Bob, the fuel was butane I believe used in gas lighters. Like in the Bic type lighter, goes in as a liquid and gasifies with hand heat!
 
As an idiot growing up, i would pin prick a hole the waxy sachet, quirt some in my mouth & blow it out to a naked flame & whoosh. Just one of the many daft things of growing up! Do not try this indoors!! :cold_sweat:
And then you joined the circus :):):)
 
I had a Ronson, then a Dunhill, but finished up with an electric cigarette lighter (early 1960s), a strange beast you slid at the top a wire ignite, which lit the wick, but for the life of me I can remember very little about it... At an antique fair recently I was horrified to see a Ronson Variflame for sale at £60.00. Aaaah!!!! you've all done it again, memories are made of this, do you remember those big Ronson Queen Anne table lighters?
I still have a tin of lighter fuel for emergency paint, grease and other assorted spill cleaning.

Bob

Some of those old Ronson lighters are sold for many hundreds of pounds among collectors. I think the most sought after is the table model with the simulated tropical fishes set in the sides. One appeared on Flog It and did very well indeed at auction.
 
We still have lighters (notice no mention of cigarettes etc). They are cheapies used for lighting our fires, grate and occasionally garden; I also use them for candle lighting in church. Still useful but an alternative purpose.
 
Saw a Wedgewood design table top cigarette lighter in a charity shop recently all of £4.50. We have the plastic cheapies at home for lighting candles. My wife who professionally used copious amounts of "Spray Mount" always has a can of lighter fuel to hand, apparently it is a superb solvent. I was never a smoker so had little interest in lighters but I do remember having one as a birthday present from a then young lady. I think her idea was that I would be on hand to light her cigarettes.
 
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As a schoolboy smoker, I recall tipped (filter) cigarettes being called “Cork Tip”. It tended to be the Irish lads who would say this. The printed patten on the tip certainly looked to resemble cork, so was there ever a time when the filter it was real cork?
 
As a schoolboy smoker, I recall tipped (filter) cigarettes being called “Cork Tip”. It tended to be the Irish lads who would say this. The printed patten on the tip certainly looked to resemble cork, so was there ever a time when the filter it was real cork?
Mort, I don’t think so. Also as a schoolboy smoker I could not smoke the non tipped because I got them too wet!
The early tips were pleated filter paper media and then I think it was Stuyvesant that introduced the us Style tip which was a version of what is used now. As a boy for some reason I would find thos used tip after they had been used to see what Were. There might have been some cork but I never saw it.
 
Mort, I don’t think so. Also as a schoolboy smoker I could not smoke the non tipped because I got them too wet!
The early tips were pleated filter paper media and then I think it was Stuyvesant that introduced the us Style tip which was a version of what is used now. As a boy for some reason I would find thos used tip after they had been used to see what Were. There might have been some cork but I never saw it.
we called that duck arseing the fags.:grinning:

in 1925, Hungarian inventor Boris Aivaz patented the process of making a cigarette filter from crepe paper.[8]

From 1935, a British company began to develop a machine that made cigarettes incorporating the tipped filter. It was considered a specialty item until 1954, when manufacturers introduced the machine more broadly, following a spate of speculative announcements from doctors and researchers concerning a possible link between lung diseases and smoking. Since filtered cigarettes were considered safer, by the 1960s, they dominated the market. Production of filter cigarettes rose from 0.5 percent in 1950 to 87.7 percent by 1975.

Cigarettes filters were originally made of cork and used to prevent tobacco flakes from getting on the smoker's tongue. Many are still patterned to look like cork.[1]
 
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