Research Results For 'Cigar'

CIGAR

A cigar is a small roll of manufactured tobacco leaves carefully made up, and intended to be smoked by lighting at one end and drawing the smoke through it. The best cigars are made in Havana, Cuba, and have been since at least the 19th century.
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CIGARETTE

A cigarette is a sort of small cigar made by rolling fine-cut tobacco in thin paper specially prepared for the purpose.
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TOBACCO

Tobacco is the name given to the leaves of those varieties of the Nicotiana which are prepared in different forms for use as a narcotic. It is generally manufactured for smoking, but also for chewing and as snuth.
The word tobacco is probably derived from tobaco, the name given to a peculiar Y-shaped instrument used by the old inhabitants of the island of Santo Domingo for inhaling tobacco-smoke through the nostrils. Other authorities claim that the name of the herb is derived from the Mexican word tabacco.
Columbus and his party made the earliest European reference to tobacco on their return from the voyage to Cuba in 1492. The tobacco plant was first brought to Europe in 1558 by Francisco Fernandes, a Spanish physician. The wonderful healing properties which the plant was supposed to possess caused the habit of smoking and snuff-taking to spread with great rapidity over almost the whole of Europe. Jean Nicot, French ambassador to Portugal, who gives his name to the genus Nicotiana, sent a present of tobacco seeds to Catherine de'Medici, and she initiated in France the snuff-taking habit as a cure for headache. This habit soon spread to Scotland and Ireland, where it remained popular long after the smoking habit had become established in England.
The smoking of tobacco was really started by English example. In 1586, Ralph Lane, the first governor of Virginia, and Sir Francis Drake brought smoking materials and implements to Sir Walter Raleigh, who very rapidly popularised the custom.
Most of the tobacco used in the 17th and 18th centuries was grown in Virginia by English colonists, whose industry was carefully protected by laws prohibiting the production of tobacco in the British Isles.
There are about 50 species of Nicotiana, most of them indigenous to America. Of these, three varieties are in general use by smokers: (1) Nicotiana tabacum, the Virginian variety, originally derived from the South or Central American seed, and now cultivated in almost all temperate and warmer climates. (2) Nicotiana rustica, grown principally in Turkey, Syria, and India. This is milder in flavour, and is principally used for the manufacture of cigarettes. It burns too quickly for a pipe tobacco. (3) Nicotiana Persica, or Persian tobacco, which is good for pipe tobacco, but not sufficiently uniform for the manufacture of cigars.
The tobacco plant is a coarse, rank-growing annual. Its stem is simple and unbranched, and grows to a height of about two meters, terminating in a bunch of yellow or rose-coloured flowers. The East Indian variety is slightly different, producing a green tobacco from a smaller plant. It is derived from the Mexican seed, and is also cultivated in Southern Germany and Hungary.
The tobacco plant can be cultivated in every part of the world, but with widely varying measures of success. It is grown in British gardens for the sake of its flowers. Clayey, moist soils produce tobaccos which are dark brown or reddish in colour when cured. Bright and yellow tobaccos are grown on sandy soils, and the leaf of this variety is thinner. The bright tobacco produced in Virginia and North Carolina is all grown in loose sandy soil with a clay subsoil.
The tobacco seeds are generally sown in nursery beds, and set out later. About 3OOOOO to 4000000 go to the ounce, and this produces about 40,000 plants, for which 50 square yards of nursery bed are sufficient. The seeds are sown at the end of March or beginning of April, in rich, heavy soil which has been carefully prepared and fertilised. The seedlings remain in the nursery from fifty to sixty days, during which time the fields are well tilled and manured. Transplanting is done on a warm, rainy day, and the young plants set in ridges varying from one to four feet in width. Ridges of one to one and a half feet are most usual in Cuba and Sumatra, as the wider ridge produces a leaf which is too coarse for the purpose of cigar-making.
The crop takes another two months until it flowers, and at this stage the buds are pinched off or 'topped', and some of the leaves pruned, so that only a certain number are left to ripen. For cigar-tobacco, from 15 to 20 leaves are left on the plant; for the best smoking tobaccos, 10 to 12 leaves. Plants which have been topped form suckers, and in Florida these are left to produce a second, although inferior, sucker crop.
The leaves take about 35 days to ripen after the plants are topped and pruned. The ripening leaf changes from a dark to a lighter yellowish-green colour, and is often mottled and becomes gummy. The ripe leaf cracks and creases when folded. The lower leaves ripen first, and for the best tobaccos the leaves are picked singly ;
as they ripen. For the bulk of the tobaccos, however, the whole plant is cut when the middle leaves are ripe. Warm, cloudy days are best for cutting, and the plants are not gathered in hot sunshine or when they are wet from rain or dew.
After harvesting the plants are left in the open to wilt, and are then conveyed to the drying-house or ventilating-barn, where they are straddled across tiers of poles and dried in a temperature which is raised to 170° F for four to five days. On damp days the moisture is allowed to penetrate into the drying-house to make the leaves pliable.
The plants are then taken down and stripped, and the leaves sorted into firsts, seconds, and lugs - the name given to the inferior leaves. They are formed into hands containing ten to twelve leaves, and these are left in heaps and fermented at a temperature of about 130° F for from three to four weeks. The heaps are shuffled from time to time, to allow all the leaves to assume a uniform brown tint. This process is called the fermenting or sweetening process. In the non-fermenting processes the leaves are simply sun-cured, or sun-dried, and this tobacco is used chiefly for chewing tobaccos. In the fermenting process the starch and sugar in the leaf are decomposed, but they are retained in the sun-dried process. Lastly, the leaves are packed carefully in hogsheads for shipment.
Tobacco leaf is used for making into various smoking mixtures, roll tobacco, cake or plug, cigars, cigarettes, and snuff. For snuff the leaf requires very careful fermentation during several weeks. It is ground up and flavoured so as to produce the greatest possible amount of free ammonia, free nicotine, and other aromatic scents.
Syria produces and manufactures a smoking tobacco which is known as Latakia. It is similar to Turkish-grown tobacco, but differently treated. The plants are not topped. The seeds as well as the leaves are included in the curing, this taking place in the smoke of a fire of evergreen-oak, which gives a black colour and a peculiarly strong flavour to the tobacco.
Tobacco for pipe-smoking is mostly grown in the USA, the chief states being Kentucky, North Carolina, and Virginia. Louisiana grows a dark, almost black, and very strong tobacco known as perique. Cigarette tobaccos are principally imported from Virginia, and Turkish and Egyptian cigarettes are also in great demand. The Egyptian cigarette is made from Turkish leaf, as the cultivation of tobacco in Egypt was prohibited in 1891. The best cigar tobaccos are grown in Cuba. A very good cigar leaf is also produced in Jamaica, Sumatra and North Borneo.
Since the introduction of tobacco into England, it has been subject to continuous legislation and import duties. In the early days a certain quantity of tobacco was grown in England for domestic consumption, and quite a considerable trade was done with Turkey, which, at that time, imported her tobacco supplies from England. Queen Elizabeth imposed a tax of 2d per Ib on imported tobacco. In 1621 James I increased this to 6s. lOd. per Ib.
During the American War of Independence, England's source of supply and the revenue there from were temporarily suspended, and tobacco was again widely planted in England, although the prohibition laws had not been repealed. These laws had never applied to Scotland, and to reimburse themselves for the loss of revenue during the non-importation of American tobacco, the Government purchased the Scotch tobacco crops at the fixed price of 4d. per Ib., thus temporarily creating a Government monopoly in tobacco. The ban on the growing of tobacco in the British Isles, renewed in 1782 in England, and in 1830 in Ireland, was modified later in the 19th century, and tobacco can now be cultivated under licence.
During the late 20th century an American-led ban on tobacco smoking supposedly because of the connection with lung cancer, but more likely under pressure from the pharmaceutical lobby, in public places slowly extended to Britain, with Scotland banning the smoking of tobacco in pubs and clubs in 2005.
Research Tobacco

GHEDE

Ghede, in the original myths of Haiti, was the god of love, sex incarnate. In later, Voodoo myth he was amalgamated with Baron Samedi, god of death. He kept his earlier lustful ways, and a fondness for rum and feasting. He was a dandy, always wearing a black tail-coat, a top hat and sunglasses, twirling a cane and smoking a cigar or a cigarette in a long holder. He loved to dance, and swept his followers away into the ecstasy and trance of dancing. But the dance, which originally was a phallic ritual of birth, had now become a dance of death: Baron Samedi's orgies always ended (for his mortal followers) at the crossroads between this world and the Underworld, and the way they went was down. Because Ghede was Guardian of the Crossroads, he knew all the secrets of magic, and had second hearing and second sight. He could be consulted for advice - often on questions of fertility, either of humans, crops or animals. The questioner made blood-sacrifice and asked the priest questions to put to Ghede, and the god answered in the patterns of
rum-drops spilled in the dust, or in the hll of dice or the turning of Tarot cards. The advice was often frightening and apparently ridiculous, but it was always true and you neglected it at your peril.
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CIGAR

Cigar was the codename of the British operation to jam enemy VHF radio communications to airborne fighters during the Second World War.
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MEERSCHAUM

Meerschaum (sepiolite) is a white or yellowish earthy mineral, consisting of hydrous magnesium silicate. It was first found on the sae shore where, resembling petrified sea-froth was given its name - which in German means sea-froth. Meerschaum lathers like soap when first dug, and was used as a soap by the Tartars. It is highly porous, and may float on water. It is very soft, with a relative hardness of 2 to 2.5 and is easily turned into pipes and cigar-holders. Before use the meerschaum is impregnated with oil, tallow or wax.
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AERONAUTICS

Aeronautics is the art of sailing in or navigating the air. The first form in which the idea of aerial locomotion naturally suggested itself was that of providing men with wings by which they should be enabled to fly. By about 1905, however, it was generally admitted that it is impossible for man by his muscular strength alone to give motion to wings of sufficient extent to keep him suspended in the air. Hence later attempts at aerial navigation structures of a different kind were generally tried, such as some sort of flying car, elevated and propelled by machinery which eventually gave rise to the modern aircraft, or a vehicle so buoyant as to float in the air, the balloon being the most common. Early pioneers in flight encountered one great difficulty in that of supporting in mid-air a sufficient weight of machinery to provide the necessary power for propelling and steering purposes.

The navigation of the air by means of the balloon dates only from nearly the close of the eighteenth century. In 1766 Henry Cavendish showed that hydrogen gas was at least seven times lighter than ordinary air, and it at once occurred to Dr. Black of Edinburgh that a thin bag filled with this gas would rise in the air, but his experiments were for some reason unsuccessful. Some years afterwards Tiberius Cavallo found that a bladder was too heavy and paper too porous, but in 1782 he succeeded in elevating soap-bubbles by inflating them with hydrogen gas. In this and the following year two Frenchmen, the brothers Stephen and Joseph Montgolfier, acting on the observation of the suspension of clouds in the atmosphere and the ascent of smoke, were able to cause several bags to ascend by rarefying the air within them by means of a fire below. These experiments roused much attention at Paris; and soon after a balloon was constructed under the superintendence of Professor Charles, which being inflated with hydrogen gas rose over 3000 feet in two minutes, disappeared in the clouds, and fell after three quarters of an hour about fifteen miles from Paris. These Montgolfier and Charles balloons already represented the two distinct principles in respect to the source of elevating power for balloons, the one being inflated with common air rarefied by heat, requiring a fire to keep up the rarefaction, the other being filled with gas lighter at a common temperature than air, and thus rendered permanently buoyant. Both forms were used for a considerable time, but the greater safety and convenience of the gaseous inflation finally prevailed. After the use of coal-gas had been introduced it superseded hydrogen gas, as being much less expensive, though having a far less elevating power.

The first person who made an ascent in a balloon was Pilatre de Rozier, who ascended 50 feet at Paris in 1783 in one of Montgolfier's. A short time afterwards M. Charles and M. Robert ascended in a balloon inflated with hydrogen gas, and travelled a distance of 27 miles from the Tuileries; M. Charles by himself also ascended to a height of about two miles. Since then a multitude of ascents and aerial voyages were made, with, strange to say, comparatively few disastrous results in the early years. Among the names of the earlier balloonists we may mention Lunardi, who first made an ascent in Great Britain in September 1784, unless we assign this honour to J. Tytler (' Balloon' Tytler), who seems to have made two short ascents from Edinburgh in the preceding month; Blanchard, who, along with the American Dr. Jeffries, first crossed the Channel from Dover to Calais, in January 1785; Garnerin, who first descended by a parachute from a balloon in October 1797; and Gay Lussac, who reached the height of 23,000 feet in September 1804.

In 1836 a balloon carrying Messrs. Green, Holland, and Mason traversed the 500 miles between London and Weilburg in Nassau in eighteen hours. In 1859 Mr. J. Wise, the chief of American aeronauts, accompanied by several others, rose from New York, and landed, after a flight of 1150 miles, in twenty hours. In September 1862, the renowned aeronaut, Mr. Glaisher, accompanied by a Mr. Coxwell, made an ascent from Wolverhampton, and reached the estimated elevation of 37,000 feet, or 7 miles, a height far greater than any other then attained, if it can be depended on as exactly ascertained. But the aeronauts were for a time in great peril, Mr. Glaisher having become insensible, and Mr. Coxwell having his hands so severely frozen that he was unable to pull the valve for descent, and was compelled to use his teeth. Early aeronauts were clearly unaware of the thinning of the atmosphere and dramatic reduction in temperature with altitude. It is claimed that the first greatest really authentic height-35,000 feet-was attained by two German aeronauts at Berlin in 1901. The most daring early attempt at an aerial voyage was that of the Swede, Andree, who, with two companions in 1897 ascended from Spitzbergen in hopes of reaching the North Pole, their fate remaining unknown.

All the features of the ordinary balloon as now used are more or less due to Professor Charles, already mentioned. Early balloons were usually a large pear-shaped bag, made of pliable silk cloth, covered with a varnish of caoutchouc dissolved in oil of turpentine to render it air-tight. The ordinary size ranged from 20 to 30 feet in equatorial diameter, with a proportionate height, but balloons of far greater dimensions were also constructed. A car, or basket, generally of wicker-work, supported by a network which extends over the balloon, contained the aeronaut; and a valve, usually placed near the top, and to which is attached a string reaching the car, gave him the power of allowing the gas to escape, whereby the balloon lowered at pleasure. A quantity of sand ballast in small bags was usually taken, and when the balloon tended to descend too far sand was thrown out and it rose again. The guide-rope, a long and heavy rope trailing over the ground, was sometimes used when the country was such that no serious damage would result from its trailing. The principle of this device was that as the balloon tended to rise it must lift more of the rope off the ground, while when the balloon sunk it was relieved of so much weight, and thus it tended to float at one level above the ground.

The problem of how to steer or propel a balloon in a desired horizontal direction was an early issue and numerous attempts at producing navigable balloons were made at the start of the 20th century. In a navigable balloon to be propelled through the air by some kind of motor, against the wind if necessary, the familiar balloon shape was departed from as quite unsuitable, and the 'air-ship' usually of an elongated form and more or less cylindrical or cigar-shaped adopted. A design still used a hundred years later.

Balloons of a fish or cigar shape, floated by gas, and propelled by a screw driven by a dynamo-electric machine, and steered by a large rudder, made several ascents in Paris in 1884 and 1885; and being generally able to return to the starting-point, at the time it was claimed for them that they had settled the question of balloon steerage, but it was several years before the matter was settled. The names of Count Zeppelin and M. Santos Dumont became well known in connection with such balloons. In 1897-1900 the former constructed a huge cylindrical air-ship of great length, with parabolic ends, divided into a number of separate chambers filled with hydrogen gas and these enclosed in an outer air balloon, the whole being braced and made rigid by an aluminium framework, and the means of propulsion being screws driven by Daimler petrol motors and fixed to the longitudinal axis of the air-ship. The success of this great structure, even after various improvements were introduced, appears to have been only partial, and want of sufficient funds brought operations to a stop for a while. M. Santos Dumont constructed several navigable balloons, and one of them was so successful at Paris in 1901 as to gain a prize of 100,000 francs. On this occasion his airship made the journey from St. Cloud to the Eiffel Tower and back again, a distance of about 9.5 miles, in half an hour. M.M. Lebaudy of Paris also made some very successful trips with a dirigible balloon ; that is, one that can be steered or directed-to some extent at least.

In 1903-4 a large air-ship was constructed by Dr. F. A. Barton at Alexandra Park, London. This structure had a bamboo framework suspended below it, connected with which was the propelling machinery, two engines each of 4.7 ihp, driving a series of fans, there being a large square sail serving as a rudder. In 1905 an improved form of this air-ship was experimented with, the name Barton-Rawson air-ship, 'designed for the War Office', later being given to it. In this form it consisted of a silk balloon 180 feet long and 40 in diameter, with a bamboo car 127 ft. long and 18 ft. high, carrying a 50-horsepower motor at either end driving four propellers 7 ft. in diameter and revolving at a high speed, the total weight being about 14,000 lbs. Ascents made in July 1905 were not very successful, the air-ship driving with the wind and being unable to take a course of its own. The British War Office expressed its readiness to give an order for an air-ship on certain conditions, one being that it must be able to turn in a circle of 100 yards radius.

Besides balloons, which are lighter than a corresponding volume of air, and air-ships depending on the same principle, various apparatus were constructed for aerial navigation that are heavier than the air at the start of the 20th century at a time when the feasibility of attaining success with such was supported by the flight of birds, many of which are decidedly heavy compared with their expanse of wing. Some of these apparatus were intended more for gliding or soaring through the air than for actual flight, having somewhat the nature of a huge bird with outstretched wings, beneath which a man attached himself, and on springing from a height gradually descends to the bottom - an idea revisited some years later for the hang-glider.

The kite, or structures on the same principle, were much experimented with, and it was found considerable weights can be raised and carried in this way. The kite rises in the air if drawn along by its string, and if instead of drawing it along a propeller is fitted to drive it through the air it ought to ascend in the same manner. Hence the invention of the aeroplane, which shows a large flat surface contrived to float nearly horizontally in the air, but with the front edge very slightly raised, so that in being propelled rapidly along it receives the pressure of the air on the under side, the air thus tending to counteract the force of gravity. Sir H. S. Maxim in 1894 constructed a huge machine with main and several subsidiary aeroplanes, propelled by two large screws driven by steam-engines of 300 hp, and able to rise with a great weight. As a model, at least, Prof. Langley's aerodrome had some success, flying through the air a distance of three-quarters of a mile. It had two rigid pairs of wings about 12 ft. in width, with large screw-propellers between them driven by a small steam-engine. Aviation is the term applied to attempts at flight otherwise than by balloons.

Manned balloons were successfully used for taking meteorological and military observation from the end of the 19th century. The latter class of balloons were usually 'captive' balloons - balloons that are kept by a rope from going farther than is desired, and that can be drawn back at will. Their use was only really suited for fairly calm weather and in certain circumstances. The balloon may have had a telephone connection with the earth below. There was a balloon service in the British army, the duties falling upon the Royal Engineers. Since about 1900 small captive and other balloons have sent up for purely scientific purposes, unaccompanied by any person, but provided with self-recording thermometers, barometers, etc., by which valuable facts have been ascertained. Some of these early balloons reached heights of 60,000 or 70,000 feet. During the siege of Paris in 1870-71 over sixty persons (including Gambetta) and innumerable letters left the city in balloons.
Research Aeronautics

TORPEDO

A torpedo is a cylindrical or cigar-shaped vessel carrying a charge of high explosive and used as a weapon in naval warfare. Torpedoes were invented around 1870, and are effectively a small submarine comprised of three sections: the warhead, the firing mechanism and the engine equipment. Torpedoes suffer at long range from their relatively slow rate of travel which allows a target to take evasive action should the torpedo be observed.
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B-40

B-40 is slang for a cigar laced with marijuana and dipped in malt liquor.
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BLOW A CLOUD

Blow a cloud is old slang for to smoke a cigar or pipe. The term was first used in the 16th century and was still in use at the start of the 20th.
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