Please add to your list of possible reasons:
37] Pure Habit
One may have the HABIT of smoking a cigarette every 15 minutes, but trust me, the addiction doesn’t start kicking in for hours after.
LINK TO COLUMN: Will tapping a pop can keep the carbonation from exploding on opening? Plus: why do we tap cigarettes? - The Straight Dope
“Packing” as in hit the pack (or individual cigarette) on your hand or a hard surface? The original reason dates back to unfiltered cigarettes. It was to get the loose tobacco away from the end you’re going to put in your mouth. Nowadays some people just do it to because they see others doing it. I didn’t do it for most of the time that I smoked but when I did do it, I did it because it pushed the tobacco down further (and you could see about a 1/8th to 1/4 inch space at the end) and it would make the cigarette burn a bit slower. It also meant less tobacco fell out if you carried them around in your pocket all day.
That was Reason #4, back in the 1950s, it kept tobac out of your mouth.
Cecil’s official reply was that people did it out of habit based on the variety of reasons given by SD readers…
1)It keeps the cherry from falling off.
2)The cigarette burns slower and thus tastes better.
3)The cigarette burns slower and thus lasts longer.
4)It kept tobacco bits out of your mouth in the 1950s (if you tapped the end you lit).
5)It makes the cigarette easier to light by exposing more paper (if you tap the end you put in your mouth).
6)It makes the cigarette easier to light by loosening the tobacco (if you tap the end you light).
6, for practical purposes is irrelevant as it a totally different action.
1,2,3 and 5 are all related to the fact that packing the cigarettes (I usually pack the box, before opening) condenses the tobacco to the filter end. Not by much, maybe a 1/4", but enough that the tobacco is more consistent, which can explain 1,2 and 3 and the “extra paper making it easier to light” is a consequence of the same. How much easier it is to light is debatable, but it does certainly seem like it is easier to light.
You are right and you are wrong.
During the history of cigarette smoking the rolling-tecknology for cigarettes have improved tremendously. Ensuring that todays cigarettes are evenly and rather firmly packed. Such cigarettes do not need tapping.
But if you have ever ‘rolled your own’ you will realize that that is not something that comes automatically, it takes care and attention as well as quite homogeneously cut tobacco containing neither stiff stems not overly long strips. What you typically get when rolling is knots of ling strips filtered together separate by areas where dryer areas with loose bits of tobacco from drier strips that have snapped into little pieces.
If you are a ‘good roller’ you can smoke such a cigarette. But only if you smoke it right after rolling while the tobacco is still fairly moist and sticky. If you leave the cigarette in a cigarette case for a day it will have dried more and the ‘loose’ areas will have become pockets of dry tobacco flakes sliding back and forth between two lumps. Drying shrink the tobacco and makes it less sticky.
Even as late as the 1960’s a number of loosely rolled factory brands had this problem (eg Marlboro and North State). In Russia the problem was ‘solved’ by using fairly coarse and stiff cigarette paper that could hold its shape. When you wanted to smoke your cigarette you squeezed it between 2 fingers so it became a flatter and more tightly filled tube. But burning paper dont make a good smoke
Another solution was tapping. With a good tap you can make the knots travel down the tube so you get a shorter but more evenly filled cigarette.
regards JakobA
MODERATOR COMMENT:
JakobA: Welcome to the Straight Dope Message Boards. The column in question had two different topics: tapping cigarettes and tapping pop (soda) cans. I’ve separated them into two distinct threads, so I’ve moved your comments here. No problem, just housekeeping and trying to keep topics together. And, as I say, welcome!
What a buncha hooey! Only Howard in Venice got it right. Cigarette packing is only useful for non-filter cigs, and serves the same purpose as cigarette holders and filters - namely to allow one to smoke without getting a mouthful of tobacco.
It is associated with masculinity because, for the most part, men did not smoke filtered cigarettes, nor use cigarette holders, so they were the ones seen packing their cigs. Let us not forget that filtered cigs were first marketed to women. Filtered cig smokers make the motion in imitation of their forefathers, and have since invented numerous justifications for this vestigial practice.