On October 12th, 1492, Columbus led an expedition to land on San Salvador Island, and Europeans set foot on America for the first time, which opened a new chapter in history.
In Columbus's early voyage diaries, tobacco was simply mentioned, but later it was reported more in the reports of other explorers. These reports said that they saw "many men and women holding' burning charcoal' in their hands to get some kind of fragrance". Later, it was found out that this burning "charcoal" was rolled tobacco leaves. People burn one end of this tobacco leaf, smoke it in the mouth at the other end, and then exhale smoke from the mouth or nose.
according to archaeological analysis, American residents had the habit of smoking before 35 years.
For example, in the southern Mexican state of ChiApas, there are still stone reliefs of Mayan priests wearing dresses and smoking pipe, which is recognized as the oldest smoking picture in the world.
According to legend, smoking is related to religion. Tobacco has an intoxicating aroma, has the functions of eliminating fatigue and refreshing, and can even treat diseases. At that time, people thought that tobacco was helped by "God" and was a kind of "God grass". At that time, smoking was performed as a religious ceremony by priests.
With the opening of the waterway to America, the exchanges between Europe and the United States have become increasingly frequent, and tobacco leaves and tobacco seeds have been brought into Europe and spread to other places. Later, people found that tobacco has anesthetic effect and other medicinal functions, and its spread is increasingly widespread. It can be said that tobacco in all countries of the world comes directly or indirectly from America.
there is a Frenchman named Nicholas, who lives in Lisbon, Portugal and is very interested in American plants. He once heard people say that tobacco can relieve fatigue, relieve pain and treat diseases, especially headache.
In about 156, Nigut got tobacco seeds from other people's gifts and carefully planted them in his garden. It feels good to try smoking the harvested tobacco leaves. Later, in memory of Nicotine, people called Nicotine.
After tobacco spread all over the world, it was smoked by people in various ways. What we usually say about cigarettes actually refers to cigarettes.
Because of the appearance of cigarettes, the commodity of tobacco has been more widely spread and used.
in p>1518, Spanish explorers discovered that the Aztecs and Mayans smoked grass with empty reeds, and the Spanish also learned to smoke, so the first cigarette was produced.
in p>1843, French tobacco dealers began to produce Spanish-style cigarettes, which were officially named "cigarette" in French, from which the word English cigarette came.
At this time, cigarettes were all made by hand, with high cost and low output, so it was difficult to popularize them widely.
in p>1881, a cigarette machine with a daily output of 12, cigarettes was patented.
In p>191, 13 British tobacco companies jointly established Imperial Tobacco Company.
in September, 192, British American tobacco companies jointly established a tobacco trust organization-British American Tobacco Company. Headquartered in London and new york. The chairman is Duke, the American tobacco king.
Having said that, we know that cigarettes, as a popular commodity, have only a history of more than 1 years.
In the past 1 years or so, the incidents related to cigarettes around the world are complicated, and the comments about smoking are mixed. Among them, there are many interesting things.
Qi Baishi, a famous painter, often took his pipe and cigarette case with him when he was young. Later, under the advice of others, he decided to give up smoking. But later, when he quit and smoked, the more he quit, the more he smoked, so someone made a joke on the couplet and said,
Repeated smoking and repeated smoking, repeated smoking and repeated smoking, and
daily smoking and daily smoking.
horizontal batch: in vain.
Mark Twain quipped, "It's easy to give up smoking. I've given it up a thousand times."
There is also a story circulating among the people that a wife saw her husband was addicted to smoking, and repeated dissuasions had no effect at all, so she made a couplet to him to show her dissatisfaction with her husband:
Who is a man like you, Mr. Burning fire?
do women dare to teach men a lesson? Not to be outdone, the husband immediately told the next couplet:
What a woman is like my splashing lady!
As for our humorous master Lin Yutang, his words are even more unique. He also quit smoking for three weeks. Afterwards, he recalled that it was "a moment of confusion" and felt deeply guilty. He declared: "From then on, I vowed not to be rebellious." Smoking habits will not change for life.
from these interesting things, we can see that even smokers themselves have a struggle between smoking and not smoking, not to mention the whole society. To understand the century-old history of cigarettes and look at some representative historical events, we can get a general idea.
In p>1924, American Reader's Digest published an article entitled "Is tobacco harmful to human body?" This is the first article about "smoking and health", which has attracted the attention of the world.
and in the same year, Philip? Morris Company developed a hybrid Marlboro brand cigarette, which has been popular all over the world since then.
in p>1927, the British doctor Christopher? Yi? Thulden wrote in the medical journal Scalpel that every lung cancer patient he saw or heard smoked.
In p>193, Qianjin Company in Leiston, Germany introduced a cigarette machine that produced 1,8-2, cigarettes per minute.
in p>1938, John? A biology professor at Hopkins University surveyed 6,813 people and found that 66% of non-smokers lived over 6, while only 46% of smokers lived over 6.
In 1941, during the Second World War, President Roosevelt declared tobacco as an important crop, and tobacco growers could postpone military service.
In p>1954, the Royal Medical Association published the "Report on Smoking and Health" for the first time, which linked smoking with lung cancer and attracted the attention of the medical community and all sectors. In 1955, the United States Federal Trade Commission banned claims of health benefits in cigarette advertisements.
In 1956, due to the invention of the method of suction molding, the cigarette machine designed by British Moline Company based on this principle produced 2~3 cigarettes per minute at the highest speed, which opened a new chapter in the cigarette industry and marked the beginning of large-scale mechanized cigarettes.
In p>1957, a research group jointly established by American Cancer Heart Institute, American Cancer Research Association and American Heart Association clearly announced that smoking has a direct or causal relationship with lung cancer.
In the same year, President Mao Zedong visited the tobacco-growing areas in Xiangcheng County, Henan Province. Looking around, the sea of smoke is boundless, and he said cheerfully, "You have become a tobacco kingdom here!" "
In p>1962, the Royal Society of Internal Medicine published the report "Smoking and Health", which provided the evidence that smoking was the main cause of lung cancer for the first time. Since then, there has been a heated debate between smoking ban and tobacco production.
In p>1966, American cigarette boxes began to be marked with a warning: "Caution-smoking is harmful to health".
Since then, more and more countries or organizations have taken various measures to encourage people not to smoke or quit smoking.
In recent 1 years, the newly developed cigarette machine has been able to produce 16, cigarettes per minute at the highest.
Some related research reports predict that the number of smokers in China will be 32-33 million around 2 in China alone. 383 million-424 million around 24; Around 25, it will be 375 million-416 million. At least in the next 5 years, the number of smokers will remain stable and huge.
It can be said that after cigarettes have entered people's lives as a daily commodity, although the opposition and struggle between smoking and anti-smoking have never stopped, right and wrong are put aside. Objectively speaking, the actual result is that smokers can control themselves and smokers can smoke themselves, and cigarettes have become a social hobby.
It seems that we have to find another way to eliminate the harm of cigarettes. At present, the medical profession believes that it is best to develop harmless "health cigarettes" to replace cigarettes that are harmful to human health. This plan cannot be achieved in one step. We can only wait and see.