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Rolling your own
cigarettes in the mid 1900s
'Roll ups' cigarettes
Gadget, generally known as a machine, for rolling one's own cigarettes, and a packet of cigarette papers for use with the gadget, photographed in Winchester City Museum.
In view of the shortages and austerity during the Second World War and the years afterwards, my father made his own cigarettes from cigarette papers and tobacco, which were bought from the tobacconist. These cigarettes were known as 'roll-ups'.
Guest contribution
Tobacco from used cigarette stubs
Making your own 'roll ups' from stubs in ashtrays around the house when desperate for tobacco was commonplace. A joke at the time in men's urinals was "Please do not discard your cigarette butts in the urinal as this makes them nearly unsmokeable".
Desmond Dyer
The roll your own cigarette machine
Making one's own roll-ups was common practice. There was a special gadget for it, known - in spite of its simplicity - as a machine. It had two rollers, joined together with a length of some sort of fabric, as shown in the photograph.
To make a roll-up cigarette, a cigarette paper was laid between the rollers and the tobacco was spread onto it. Then the rollers were rolled together so that only the edge of the paper showed. This was gummed, and was licked to activate the gum. The rollers were rolled. and out came a cigarette. The whole process was known as 'rolling your own'.
Cigarette papers
The cigarette papers were made by Rizla. I never knew of any other brands.
The appearance of roll-your-own cigarettes
My father's roll-up cigarettes always seemed to be much thinner and empty at the ends than the bought sort of later years, probably because tobacco was in such short supply and there wasn't much spare money.
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