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An exploding cigar is a variety of cigar that explodes shortly after being lit. Such cigars are normally packed with a minute chemical explosive charge near the lighting end or with a non-chemical device that ruptures the cigar when exposed to heat. The customary intended purpose of exploding cigars is as a form of hostile practical joke, rather than to cause lasting physical harm to the butt of the joke. Nevertheless, the high risk of unintended injuries from their use caused a decline in their manufacture and sale. Although far rarer than their prank cousins, exploding cigars used as a means to kill or attempt to kill targets in real life has been claimed, and is well represented as a fictional plot device. The most infamous case concerning the intentionally deadly variety was an alleged plot by the CIA of the US in the 1960s to assassinate Fidel Castro. Notable real-life incidents involving the non-lethal ilk include an exploding cigar purportedly given by Ulysses S. Grant to an acquaintance and a dust-up between Turkish military officers and Ernest Hemingway after he pranked one of them with an exploding cigar. ==Manufacture and decline== During the early- to mid-20th century, exploding cigars were a popular practical joke device, frequently advertised and mentioned in newspapers of the era.〔A search of Ancestry.com's periodical database of digitized newspapers with the search parameters "exploding cigar" and "exploding cigars" reveals hundreds of relevant newspaper items.〕 Despite their popularity, the history of the exploding cigar's development is apparently not well documented, including how, where and when they first appeared.〔Reviewing search results of Google web, news and books and Ancestry.com's periodical database of digitized newspapers with the search parameters "exploding cigar" and "exploding cigars" fails to reveal any dates or sources of invention, beginning use and manufacture, nor where they developed.〕 The largest manufacturer and purveyor of exploding cigars in the United States during the middle of the 20th century was the S. S. Adams Company, which, according to ''The Saturday Evening Post'', made more exploding cigars and other gag novelty items as of 1946 than its next eleven competitors combined.The company was founded by Soren Sorensen Adams, dubbed "king of the professional pranksters", who invented and patented many common gag novelties such as sneezing powder, itching powder, the dribble glass and the joy buzzer.〔〔The New York Times Company (October 21, 1963). Obituaries section: (Soren S. Adams, 84, Novelties Maker ) (Associated Press). Retrieved on June 9, 2008.〕 The largest New York–based manufacturer of exploding cigars was Richard Appel, a German refugee from Nuremberg, who in or about 1940 opened a gag novelty factory on Manhattan's Lower East Side.〔CondéNet (2008). Abstract of the March 30, 1940 issue of The New Yorker, p. 13: (Gagman ) by Maurice Zolotow. Retrieved on June 10, 2008.〕 By the time exploding cigars were being turned out by manufacturers such as Adams and Appel, the chemical explosive variety had fallen out of favor.〔 According to Adams, the large-scale switch to a non-chemical device occurred in approximately 1915 in the aftermath of a death caused by a homemade exploding cigar rigged with dynamite.〔 Though exploding cigars were not normally rigged with dynamite but with explosive caps using a less powerful incendiary, following the incident, a number of U.S. states banned the product altogether.〔 The replacement for chemical explosives was a metal spring mechanism, bound with cord—as the victim puffed away, the cord burned through, causing the device to spring open, thus rupturing the cigar's end.〔〔 Prank exploding cigars have caused many injuries over their history. For example, in 1902 one Edward Weinschreider sued a cigar shop for an exploding cigar which burned his hand so badly three of his fingers had to be amputated.〔Brooklyn Daily Eagle (October 22, 1902). Front page: ''Loaded Cigar Damage Suit''. Digitized version available through the (Brooklynpubliclibrary.org ). Retrieved on June 9, 2008.〕 As has been observed by one legal scholar, "()he utility of the exploding cigar is so low and the risk of injury so high as to warrant a conclusion that the cigar is defective and should not have been marketed at all."〔Steenson, Michael K. ''A Comparative Analysis of Minnesota Products Liability Law and the Restatement (Third) of Torts: Products Liability.'' 24 William Mitchell Law Review 1 (1998)〕 Laws have been enacted banning the sale of exploding cigars entirely, such as Chapter 178 of Massachusetts' Acts and Resolves, passed by its legislature in 1967. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Exploding cigar」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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