This paper describes some of the results of a two and a half year, Congressionally-mandated effort to identify cigarettes with properties that would reduce their propensity to ignite soft furnishings (upholstered furniture and mattresses). For this purpose, the ignition propensities of 41 specially and designed and 5 patented cigarettes were investigated. Several of these experimental cigarettes were found to have considerably lower ignition propensities than current commercial cigarettes. These cigarettes combined low tobacco content (attained by low packing density and low cigarette circumference), and low paper permeability and citrate content. Some of these low ignition propensity cigarettes had tar, nicotine, and CO yields comparable to large-sellin commercial brands. The five patented cigarettes also exhibited considerably lower ignition propensity than commercial cigarettes.