Plastic Water Bongs

Plastic bongs made of acryl are more suitable for transport than glass bongs because they are durable and easily survive being dropped. Acrylic bongs are very easy to keep clean, and besides removing tars and toxins, water filtration protects your lung’s immune system and its ability to fight bacteria.

When most people think about smoking marijuana or tobacco cigarettes, they picture themselves sitting in front of an open window holding a cigarette while their eyes glaze over. The reality is much different when you’re doing it.

Smokers usually hold the pipe between their lips while sucking air through the stem and then blow out toward the ground. Smoke enters the mouth, goes down the throat, and eventually exits from the nose. This type of smoking has become known as “normal” or “traditional.”

But what if there were another way? What if you blew out cold air laced with chemicals instead of hot air? That’s exactly what plastic water pipes allow smokers to do.

This article will explore how these bongs work and why some people are interested in them. We’ll find out who designed them and where they came from. Finally, we’ll look at future advancements in this exciting new field.

How It Works

A standard water bong consists of three parts: A bowl made of glass or ceramic that holds ice cubes and chilled water. There may be other accessories like a mesh screen (to keep larger chunks of ice from falling back into the bowl), and a tube called a “stem,” which runs from the top of the bowl up to just below the lip.

The stem fits snugly into the end of a hose attached to a large fan. When activated by a switch, the fan blows warm air across the outside of the bowl, keeping everything inside cool enough to touch. Some designs use two fans to create even colder blasts than traditional systems.

In addition to allowing users to inhale cooled smoke, many models include filters that help remove impurities from the smoke stream.

Smoking weed using a water bong creates vapor bubbles within the contained space of the pipe. As long as the pipe isn’t breaking, the user will typically suck on a piece of flavored charcoal while he smokes.

Once the hit starts, the Smoker exhales through his nostrils rather than his mouth because he doesn’t want any residual contaminants left behind. He can control the amount of inhaled smoke by adjusting how fast he sucks.

Each time he takes a drag, new vapor forms above the liquid’s surface and rises the pipe’s length. With every pull, the bubble gets bigger and moves further away from him. After several pulls, the vapor reaches the end of the pipe and escapes into the room.

Because the entire process happens quickly, a person can get high very quickly — sometimes as fast as 20 minutes per bowl [Source: WebMD].

Most people know that smoking pot makes you feel good and relaxed. However, the negative effects aren’t all pleasure-related. Smoking too often can cause lung damage, and cardiovascular and respiratory problems.

Luckily, many companies have developed products that limit those damaging side effects. For example, Green Cross distributes water bongs equipped with carbon dioxide cartridges.

These devices contain specially coated silica gel beads that absorb harmful gases such as nitrogen oxides and formaldehyde before escaping into the surrounding environment.

Now let’s see how water bongs got their start.

The Designers

Regarding design, most people probably don’t give much thought to water pipes. Most people accept them as part of life. They assume that whoever invented them must’ve had something important figured out. So who did come up with the idea?

It turns out that William McSherry was involved with both the creation of water pipes and the development of modern plastics. His invention, patented under U.S. Patent No. 1,948,547, used polymers to make hollow tubes for light bulbs.

About ten years later, he began experimenting with making similar materials for water pipes. By 1922, he’d produced hundreds of prototype pieces with chambers that fit onto stems.

McSherry didn’t invent the term “plastic,” however. People had already experimented with creating heat-resistant versions of clay pipes. One of the first patents on plastic water pipes was filed by John R. Hayworth, who owned Pipe Welding Co., Inc. On Jan. 6, 1926, he applied for a patent titled “Pipe Made From Heat Resistant Polymer Material.”

Like McSherry, he tried to solve a problem that people had been dealing with for centuries – finding a material that would endure repeated freezing and thawing cycles. Unlike McSherry, though, he managed to produce a durable plastic product.

Other notable names associated with early plastic water pipes included Charles F. Kettering, inventor of the electric motor, and Edward J. Stearns, president of General Electric. Both men worked with William Crapo Hooker Jr., chief engineer of GE, to develop inexpensive ways to mass-produce plastic pipes.

Unfortunately, no matter how cheap production became, they couldn’t figure out a way to incorporate a preheating element into the mix. Instead, the earliest plastic water pipes relied solely upon heated bowls and warmed hoses.

History of Plastic Water Pipes

Although someone discovered plastic’s potential as a building block in 1926, it took decades to convert existing products into plastic vessels. The reason for this lag might seem obvious.

First, plastic hasn’t yet proved its superiority over metal in everyday applications, so manufacturers weren’t sure whether consumers would buy anything else. Second, since the 1920s, companies have spent billions developing various types of machinery to produce metal objects.

If they had switched gears and invested that money elsewhere, perhaps they wouldn’t have lost so much revenue during the Great Depression. Third, unlike wood, steel, and iron, there wasn’t much demand for plastic items back in the 1930s.

Even today, plastics account for less than 2 percent of total construction spending worldwide.
That changed dramatically after World War II ended. Suddenly, Americans needed lightweight, sturdy products for rebuilding cities destroyed by aerial bombardment or atomic attacks.

Concrete and steel structures collapsed easily during wartime bombings, leaving millions homeless. Plastic ranks among the best insulators, meaning it keeps things cooler for longer, so it seemed like a logical choice for replacing heavy metals.

During the 1950s and 1960s, companies like DuPont and Dow Chemical Company turned out synthetic resins capable of enduring extreme temperatures. Then, in 1965, DuPont introduced Nylon 12, a strong, flexible polymer derived from petroleum oil.

Although it’s stronger than nylon, Nylon 12 melts at lower temperatures than regular mixtures of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), commonly referred to as PETG. Since PETG is easier to mold into thinner walls, designers can build smaller diameter pipes that remain stable even when exposed to intense heat.

Over time, companies have found uses for various plastics ranging from biodegradable cornstarch derivatives to nonporous polypropylene.

Today, despite the proliferation of specialty pipes and vases available online, real estate agents still report more interest in selling houses than buying them. Perhaps that tells us something about our collective love affair with home furnishings.

What does the future hold for plastic water pipes? Well, hopefully, sooner rather than later. While some retailers continue to carry old styles, others offer innovative new designs. Companies like Swisher now sell small bottles filled with distilled water and sealed with wax that prevents evaporation.

Users fill the bottle with tap water and shake it vigorously until it becomes completely saturated. Then they wait 24 hours, remove the cap, reattach it and crack the bottle wide open. The resulting spray of misty drops contains purer oxygen molecules than ordinary drinking water.

Future of Plastic Water Pipes

If you live in Amsterdam, chances are that you won’t run into anyone puffing on a water pipe anytime soon. You might encounter a few locals enjoying a coffee break in a trendy cafe, but that’s about it.

Yet, in the mid-1990s, Dutch entrepreneurs saw huge business opportunities in catering to the local market. Their solution was to import American-style hookah lounges directly from California vendors. Customers sit cross-legged on cushions, sip on mint tea, and enjoy sweet strawberry clove-flavored shisha.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for places like Australia and New Zealand. Despite having legal penalties against the public possession of marijuana, laws vary depending upon location.

At least in Alaska, where recreational sales of cannabis began last October, adults 21 and older can possess up to 30 grams of dried marijuana flower or 360 grams of concentrate for personal consumption. However, obtaining weed outside America, Canada, and Uruguay remains illegal.

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