Corncobs

[Gerrit_Jan]

Goodmorning,

As I discovered the first corncobs are made in 1869. At that time in Europe the first briar pipes where introduced. Before that time we smoked clay pipes. My question is: what did you smoke before you got your corncobs???

Have a nice day.

Gerrit Jan

 

[Richard Burley]

Clays. But who knows when the first corncob pipe was made? I'll bet it was way before 1869, which I would guess was just the first commercial corncob date.

 

[James Kime]

Clay pipes. From what I read they were prevalent in the colonies.

 

[Anonymous]

Cobs were probably too "trashy" to be considered a sell-able item. I could imagine once people started moving to the cities it was a convenience to purchase an cheap pipe. Plus cobs can take a beating. Imagine working with a clay pipe between your teeth all day long.

Also, being that corn and tobacco are native crops in the Americas and the cob pipe closely resembles Native American pipes, I find it hard to believe the first one was built in the 1800's.

White people took credit for everything back then.

 

[Gerrit_Jan]

Good evening Richard,

The year 1869 is mentioned on the site corncobpipe.com. I was just curious what people at the other side of the ocean where smoking before the corncob. And I haven't discovered why just using a corncob to make a pipe. Actually the same question I had was why they have chosen briar to make a pipe. In our Dutch forum there are ever more people who are enthusiastic about Missouri Meerschaum. In despite of all the extra payment and so on they order MM pipes from the USA. So that's actually why I made a little study of smoking in the USA. Maybe you know where I can find more information about smoking claypipes in the US. All the info I have now comes from Europe.

Have a nice evening

Gerrit Jan

 

[Kyle Weiss]

If I may...

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0394470001

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1635172.The_Ultimate_Pipe_Book

These two books did a good job getting me started on history, nomenclature, process and spirit of the pipe. The book by R. Hacker might have some humor and colloquialism that could make it hard for you to read, but it's a fun and informative read.

8)

 

[Gerrit_Jan]

Good evening Kyle,

Thank you for the info. If I'm not wrong is the Richard Hacker also available in Dutch, I will ask for that in the bookshop. The other one I had never heard of. I'll try to get one of it because it looks very interesing.

Thank you again!

Gerrit Jan

 

[Kyle Weiss]

No sweat. Hopefully the Dutch translation isn't direct from English, or that R. Hacker book is likely to be confusing (or unintentionally funny) :lol:

Good luck.

 

[Smoker99]

Have read that pipes were made of most any wood available. One reference book I read said the first semblance of a pipe was Indians who dug a small hole in the ground, lined it with damp leaves, then filled it with tobacco and inserted a long reed into the ground to intersect with the bottom of the "bowl". Thus began the circle formation to smoke a pipe.

 

[Gerrit_Jan]

And about what year are you talking about when this happened with the Indians??


greetings from Holland

GJ

 

[Natch]

I don't have the citations with me, but one of my students in a research paper (Geography of Latin America) a few years back looked into the early European statements on tobacco smoking and I believe (again, I read the paper a while back and may be a bit off here) that it was on Columbus's second or third voyage he referenced the Caribs as smoking "loaves of tobacco". They were described as fat, loosely wrapped "cigars" and supposedly quite large. No mention of pipes
use during that period.

I'd be quite interested in knowing the evolution of early European smokers into pipes. Were there pipes before the importation of tobacco in Europe? I can't imagine any use/need for them, other than ceremonial use prehistory?

Natch

 

[Gerrit_Jan]

Good morning Natch,

The story is that seamen brought the tobacco and pipes from the Indians to Europe in the 16th century. In the Netherlands they where not contented,pleased with the quality of the pipes and started to make clay pipes. First in Amsterdam later in Gouda. These are the two main cities in producing claypipes. But geografic research showed there must have been many factories all over the country, even they've found bowls in the street I've lived (in a small village inthe East of the Netherlands near the German Border) In Amsterdam there was a special market where you could buy pipes. In Gouda they where not contented of the quality of pipes and they started to make their own pipes, indeed of a better quality. They where travelling to the Amsterdam market to sell their pipes and they where selling more pipes than the people from Amsterdam. So, their came a law, the people of Gouda had to pay taxes for selling pipes in Amsterdam. You could say there was really a match between the 2 citiies. Amsterdam lost that match and the industry in Gouda was growing. First they pressed the clay in a template before bakening, later there was a factory that found out a method to pour the clay in a template which resultated in a pipe that adsorbed the moisture better. After that they found out the hollow bowl and the production of that kind of pipes won the match with the clay pipes. (In Denmark they also produced hollow bowl pipes but they bakened it on a different temperature, so they became porcelain pipes. Holland won the match because porcelain doesn't adsorbe the moisture as good a claypipe)
That's in short the story of the history of smoking in the Netherlands.(There is so much more to tell about the the pipes) If you are interested in pictures take look at http://www.claypipes.nl/. They have done a lot of research and have written a lot of articles, sadly only in Dutch. But together with a friend of the Dutch pipesmokersforum I'm working on an article (with a lot of pictures) of the history and my friend will translate it in English and post it in his blog. It should be ready half of july and if you are interested I can post the link to that article in this thread.

Have a nice day.

Gerrit Jan