Smoking bans have been in the news recently, but they’re not new. This story featured a Blantyre man who was punished for intent to smoke way back in 1879. Of course, there was a serious side to this in that he was causing a major safety breach. An article in the Scotsman Newspaper from that year recounts the story:

Hamilton – Taking a Pipe Into Dixon’s Pits – Before Sheriff Birnie yesterday, Edward Sweeney, miner, was charged with contravening the 64th rule of the new special rules lately put into force at Blantyre Collieries by having in his possession a tobacco-pipe. He pleaded guilty, and stated that lately the men had had to start work an hour earlier than usual, and in hurrying to his work he forgot to leave his pipe behind him. The Fiscal said he believed this was the case, and the Sheriff, after severely animadverting on the offence , limited the penalty to one of 10s., or imprisonment for fourteen days.