The top tips for a smoke
QUESTION
Which was the first cigarette brand to introduce a filter? Cork-tipped cigarettes have been around since the beginning of the 20th century.
Carl Avery Werner outlined the use of corktipping machines as early as 1922 in tobaccoland: A Book About tobacco; its History, Legends, Literature, Cultivation, Social And Hygienic influences, Commercial development, industrial processes And Governmental regulation.
Adverts from as early as 1902 for egyptian deities and from 1909 for egyptienne Luxury offered both cork-tipped and straight varieties.
the inclusion of a cork tip was marketed as a stylish element, particularly appealing to women, and nothing to do with health, more with keeping hands clean and prevent the smoker from accidentally getting loose tobacco in the mouth.
in 1926, Carreras Ltd launched a corktipped Craven A, claiming it was ‘kind to your lips’ or did ‘not readily cause finger stain or interfere with make-up’. it wasn’t until 1929 that they became the first to suggest health benefits with slogans such as ‘they never catch my throat’ or ‘are always kind to my throat’.
the first modern filter was patented in 1925 by Hungarian inventor Boris Aivaz, but it took another ten years before the technology caught up with the invention, as no machinery was available to produce filter-tip cigarettes until 1935.
in 1936, Brown and Williamson introduced Viceroy, the first mass-produced brand to feature a filter of cellulose acetate.
As evidence of the dangers of smoking became more concrete following a series of articles in reader’s digest in 1952 entitled Cancer By the Carton, most makers turned to filtered cigarettes.
in 1952, kent introduced the Micronite filter, which the Lorillard tobacco Company claimed ‘ offers the greatest health protection in cigarette history’. it was made of asbestos and discontinued four years later.
in 1953, r.J. reynolds introduced Winston filter cigarettes, promoting the taste benefit over health, and with this strategy dominated the U.S. market for 15 years.
R.L. Maybury, Bath, Somerset.
QUESTION
Do any pre-Fifties concrete lamp-posts still exist in Britain? SUrViVinG concrete posts of the taller variety (on main roads) are generally rarer than shorter ones on side roads. one excellent main road example is in rake Lane, in Wallasey, Wirral, at the junction with Zig Zag road. Manufactured by Stanton ironworks Company Ltd (near nottingham, now defunct), it probably dates from the Forties.
the bracket is curved with a distinctive hollow, harp-shaped fin and the column has an octagonal base. it can be seen on Google Street View by typing ‘ Zig Zag road Wallasey’ into the search engine. rake Lane still has several surviving concrete lamp-posts of a slightly later design by Stanton, from the Fifties.
other taller Forties Stanton concrete street lights with the open harp-shaped fin can also be found on Google Street View. one can be seen at the junction of Clubbs Lane and Mill road in the village of Wells-next-the-Sea in norfolk. there are two more in elland road in ripponden in West Yorkshire. Another example, with an original lantern, could be found in Jerry Croft in Skipton, north Yorkshire, until it bit the dust as recently as 18 months ago.
Simon Cornwell’s website ( simon cornwell. com/ lighting) has various examples of old lamp-posts made of concrete and cast-iron. it also features electric and gas lanterns and time switches. nowadays, even the newer concrete columns (with straighter brackets) are fast disappearing as local councils replace them with steel ones, often with the latest energy-efficient Led lights.
Chris Bird, Cheltenham, Glos.
QUESTION
Was a fruit fly the first animal sent into space? FUrtHer to the earlier answer, Laika the doomed ‘canine cosmonaut’ didn’t die ‘when the oxygen supply ran out’.
this was the official line given by the russian authorities who claimed Laika had died painlessly around a week after she was launched into space. the former stray, plucked from the streets of Moscow for the test mission, was, said the Soviets, set to return to earth unharmed after going into orbit. However, not long after blast-off, the Soviets admitted Laika wouldn’t return alive, causing an uproar. in a bid to prevent further outcry, they later made the claim of her painless death.
the grim truth came to light only in 2002, 45 years after her fatal mission in november 1957, when dimitri Malashenkov, of the institute for Biological problems in Moscow, finally revealed what had happened.
due to a malfunction in the Sputnik 2 capsule carrying the dog, the temperature and humidity rose dangerously and Laika’s heartbeat increased hugely, leading to a painful, distressing death, between five and seven hours after launch, as readings from sensors on her body confirmed.
Laika’s body would never return, though it did orbit the planet until April 1958 — more than 2,500 times in fact — when Sputnik 2 descended into the earth’s atmosphere and burned up.
Liam Collins, Tallaght, Dublin.
QUESTION
Who owns the largest collection of shoes? Do they have more than Imelda Marcos? iMeLdA MArCoS, the philippine first lady, had a collection of 1,220 pairs of shoes — claims of 7,500 were exaggerated. Stored at the national Museum in Manila, many were ruined by rain from a leaking ceiling and most were thrown away in 2010.
in 2012, darlene Flynn of California built a collection of 14,684 pairs of shoe-related items, including more than 10,000 pairs of shoes, verified by the Guinness World records as the world’s largest.
Among the collection was a replica of the disney Cinderella glass slipper, dorothy’s red shoes from the Wizard of oz, an array of Betty Boop shoes and Barbie heels.
in 2013, 58- year- old darlene was murdered by her toyboy boyfriend Justin Charles Smith, then 29. in 2016, Smith, aged 32, maintained he did not intend to kill Flynn and was not in control of himself when he struck her four to six times in the head and face with a baseball bat. He was convicted of second-degree murder.
darlene’s collection was broken up, and the record passed to Jordan Gellar, owner of the Shoezeum collection of 2,388 pairs of trainers, including many originals, in Las Vegas. He sold his collection in 2015.
it’s thought that the current record holder is Joshua Mueller, of Washington State, who has more than 1,500 pairs of Converse sneakers. John Mason, Stanton-le-Hope, Essex.