How to Use Ashtrays

Stamp out your cigarettes in an ashtray.

Common human use of tobacco is believed to have begun in the Americas sometime around the beginning of the common-era time period. Since then, tobacco use has grown from chewing and crude smoking techniques to refined smoking products that are the backbone of a major industry. With the rise of tobacco as an industry and the relative acceptance of cigarettes in society, the need arose for ashtrays to collect ash and spent cigarette butts. Ashtrays are a basic concept overall, and are similarly easy to use.

Instructions

1. Deposit your ash, as needed, into the ashtray. By either tapping the cigarette or cigar to drop the ash, or sliding it against the ashtray surface, you can deposit the waste from your tobacco products into the ashtray to keep it from getting on you or your surroundings.

2. Stamp out your smoking products on the bottom of the ashtray, then leave their spent remains within it.

3. Place sand or water in the bottom of the ashtray to allow tobacco embers to be easily extinguished.

4. Angle your cigarette or cigar inward onto the ashtray as a way to safely set it down while you are not smoking it.

5. Discard spent cigarettes, cigars and ash as needed.

References

• Tobacco.org; The Tobacco Timeline; Gene Borio
• University of Maryland: Smoking Etiquette