Smoking pipe

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A 2007 Pipe of the Year made by Peterson Pipes

A pipe is a tool used for smoking. The designs of pipes vary considerably, but for the most part they are reusable and consist of a chamber, or bowl, in which a smokable substance is placed, a stem and a mouthpiece through which the smoke is drawn and inhaled.

[edit] History

Protohistoric Catlinite pipe, probably late 17th century Ioway, from the Wanampito site.

Native Americans smoked tobacco in pipes long before the arrival of Europeans. The calumet, or peace pipe, was smoked in ceremony to seal covenants and treaties. Tobacco was introduced to Europe from the Americas in the 16th century and spread around the world rapidly.^[1]

In Asia during the 1800s, opium (which previously had only been eaten) was added to tobacco and smoked in pipes. Madak (the mixture of opium and tobacco) turned out to be far more addictive than orally-ingested opium, leading to social problems in China which culminated in the Opium Wars.^[1]

In the 20th century, pipe smoking has been adopted as a preferred method of consumption for a variety of psychoactive drugs and some claim it is a more intense method of ingestion. Smokable crack cocaine has a reputation for being more addictive than cocaine's insufflated form. Similarly, methamphetamine has gained popularity in a crystalline form which when smoked in a pipe lets the user avoid the painful nasal irritation of snorting. When not applied to a cigarette or joint, the liquid form of PCP is typically smoked in a pipe with tobacco or marijuana.^[2]

[edit] Instruments

Pipes have been fashioned from an assortment of materials including briar, clay, ceramic, corncob, glass, meerschaum, metal, gourd, stone, wood and various combinations thereof, most notably, the classic English calabash pipe.

Water pipes bubble smoke through water to cool the smoke or reduce harshness. The two basic types of water pipe are hookahs and bongs. Hookahs are traditionally used to smoke a gooey mixture of tobacco, molasses, honey, and fruit. Bongs are typically used for smoking cannabis.

Pipes also vary across a wide spectrum of cost and complexity, from simple pipes of unglazed clay which were popular in Europe and the Americas for centuries, to hookahs made of hand-blown glass and fitted with precious metals.

[edit] Culture

Arab man smoking pipe, late 1800s.

The customs, vocabulary and etiquette that surround pipe smoking culture vary across the world and depend both on the people who are smoking and the substance being smoked.

For example, in the Western world, tobacco pipe smoking has sometimes been seen as genteel or dignified and has given rise to a variety of customized accessories and even apparel such as the smoking jacket, and the Pipe Smoker of the Year award in the UK.

Cannabis culture has its own traditions concerning pipe smoking and these differ from tobacco pipe smoking. For example, unlike tobacco smokers, cannabis smokers typically follow a custom of sharing a single pipe among two or more people.

By necessity, pipe smokers ingesting methamphetamine and the smokable forms of cocaine put great importance on the proper application of heat so that the drug liquefies and vaporizes without carbonization.

In recent years, "hookah bars" have appeared in college towns and urban areas in America.^[3]