The Ultimate Question of E-Cig Origins.... 50's-70's SCI-FI addicts needed

[MaileSmyth]

The idea of a cigarette that only worked while you sucked on it was in an OLD sci-fi book. I can't remember which book, or author it was.

A person came from the future to speak with a main character, with a cig that burned when she sucked it, and went out instantly when she stopped (auto battery anyone?).

I THINK it was one of Heinlein's, but it may just has easily been something from Adams' 'Dirk Gently' books. I've been trying to remember for about a month, and I hope someone here knows it. It wasn't Asimov or Clarke, but it WAS an older book. Possibly, but unlikely, it was a Harrison from the Stainless Steel Rat series - I think they were too far in the future.

 

[juxt4p0z]

I don't remember that in Heinlein...man that's so many years ago, haven't even thought about it in ages.

 

[MaileSmyth]

I havent read the tale in over 8 years which is why i have such issue remembering. And Heinlein wrote so much, and this was a one page thing, that i thought it MIGHT have been him.

 

[CES]

Gotta love google

(is this what you meant?) self-lighting cigarettes:

SF writer Robert Heinlein thought of the idea more than a half-century ago; he refers to them with a minimum of words in his 1941 novel Methuselah's Children:

When they reached her apartment she put tobacco and drink close to him, then went to her retiring room, threw off her street clothes and put on a soft loose robe that made her look even smaller and younger than she had looked before. When she rejoined Lazarus, he stood up, struck a cigarette for her, then paused as he handed it to her and gave a gallant and indelicate whistle.

Another reference can be found in Philip High's 1964 novel The Prodigal Sun, which improves on Heinlein's version - it is self-striking:

"He touched the delivery button and watched the servo eject the carton. He extracted a cigarette, flicked off the plastic tip and watched the tobacco light on contact with the atmosphere."

 

[MaileSmyth]

Not quite. I tried google without luck. It was a single cig in a case. The person took it out took a few drags, and while taking the drag it lit itself, then went out when the person stopped. It was replaced in the case when they were done.