Bongs, which you may also know by slang terms like bubbler, binger, or billy, are water pipes used to smokeThey’ve been around for centuries. The word bong is said to have come from the Thai word “baung” for a bamboo tube used for smoking weed.
Today’s bongs look a lot more complicated than a simple bamboo tube, but they all come down to the same basic process.
Read on to learn more about how bongs work and why, contrary to lore, they aren’t actually any better for your lungs than other smoking methods.
How do they work?
Bongs come in all shapes and sizes. Some are very basic with just a bowl and chamber. Others are colorful, mouth-blown works of art.
At the end of the day, they all do basically the same thing: filter and cool the smoke that comes from the burning Bongs generally feature a small bowl that holds dried weed. When you light the weed it combusts. Meanwhile, as you inhale, the water in the bottom of the bong bubbles (or percolates, if you want to get technical). The smoke rises up through the water and then the chamber before entering your mouth and lungs.
Are they really better for your lungs?
If you’re looking for a smoother toke, a bong will give you just that compared to smoking weed rolled in paper.
As expected, the water in a bong eliminates the dry heat you get from a joint. The effect is often described as being cooler, creamy, and smooth rather than harsh.
This effect can be deceiving, though.
While the smoother smoke might feel better on your lungs, you’re still smoking. And that smoke is still filling up your lungs (we’ll spare the lecture on why this is all-around bad news for your health).
Sure, a small amount of the bad stuff might get filtered out. But it’s not enough to make much of a difference.
Yes, this means all those stories about bongs being the “safer” way to smoke are largely based on junk science.
So far, bong safety has been pretty low on the list of priorities when it comes to medical research. But as cannabis becomes legal in more areas, this could change.
If you were lucky, your first experience was through a pristine glass bong. For most any water-pipe smoker, this is the ideal; the pleasure of that first silky-smooth rip can be a defining moment that sets one on the path towards becoming a full-blown stoner.
Most of us have been there. Good glass bongs in our teenage years were a common point of reference for each and every member of the FAB crew; and these days, we’re all passionate cannabis smokers. A high-quality piece truly does make all the difference.
But — who do we have to thank for this technological marvel of the glass piece? Surely, if we trace back into the annals of history far enough, the proto-bong is somewhere to be found…Turns out, the act of ‘tracing back’ the history of the bong has not been made that easy by our ancestors. Unsurprisingly, these kinds of things aren’t well documented.
It’s plausible that bongs are a lot older than we suppose. The earliest biodegradable billies would all be long gone by the time modern researchers began their search. Archaeologists have found bits of stone shaped like modern cone-pieces, in their digs; but that isn’t a guarantee that they were part of ancient bongs. Even with carbon-dated evidence of cannabis being buried with the dead… we can’t know exactly how the plant was used.
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