Curiouser and curiouser. I agree with the 1910 year date. BTW, 1930 was Old English, not block. The import stamp makes sense as the pipe is clearly French.
1911 GBD Speciale
- Thread starter mau1
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Interesting that there's no patent number stamp.
The carburetor cited by snag (great catch!) that appears in the 1921 Civic catalog was embedded in a pipe named for the inventor: John Walker Steel (1872-1933) of Durham, England. Steel's patent application for the carburetor (https://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/originalDocument?CC=GB&NR=191308384A&KC=A&FT=D&ND=4&date=19140226&DB=EPODOC&locale=en_EP) was dated April 9, 1913, and accepted by the UK patent office on February 26, 1914. Patent protection was extended to France not long thereafter. Interestingly there are no references in the application to prior art; whether that means none existed (at least under patent), or that precedents were simply omitted is unclear. In any case Steel's patent proves that the carburetor was developed and used in pipes by 1913, and it may well have had predecessors, with or without patent protection.
I'll note in passing that the merger which eventually brought Civic and GBD together was years in the future at the time mau's pipe was made, so it seems improbable that the two companies were sharing technology.
The carburetor cited by snag (great catch!) that appears in the 1921 Civic catalog was embedded in a pipe named for the inventor: John Walker Steel (1872-1933) of Durham, England. Steel's patent application for the carburetor (https://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/originalDocument?CC=GB&NR=191308384A&KC=A&FT=D&ND=4&date=19140226&DB=EPODOC&locale=en_EP) was dated April 9, 1913, and accepted by the UK patent office on February 26, 1914. Patent protection was extended to France not long thereafter. Interestingly there are no references in the application to prior art; whether that means none existed (at least under patent), or that precedents were simply omitted is unclear. In any case Steel's patent proves that the carburetor was developed and used in pipes by 1913, and it may well have had predecessors, with or without patent protection.
I'll note in passing that the merger which eventually brought Civic and GBD together was years in the future at the time mau's pipe was made, so it seems improbable that the two companies were sharing technology.
Well, maybe the carburetor was added later. Maybe a later owner loved his Yello-Boles and decided to modernize this old French pipe. One of the tings I've learned when dealing with these old pipes is that there are a lot of surprises and "original" condition is sometimes questionable.
Snag and Guss, thanks for that great research! You've now proven that carburetors were present in 1913. I feel this is an original pipe from 1911 with an original carburetor. To Sable's point, if anyone else has a pipe with a carburetor, it would be interesting to see and compare the carburetors; later carburetors might be distinctly different. I recall reading somewhere about carbs with screws. Differing carburetor designs and differing placement of the carbs on the bowel might allow for multiple patents but I a have very limited knowledge on what the patent office would allow in that regard. Thanks everyone for your input and helping to shed some light on this subject.
Regards,
Mau
Regards,
Mau
What does the carb. do? At least in theory? Could it have been a scupper for really soggy bottoms?
I pulled this from Briarfiles.blogspot.com
The idea is that when drawing on the pipe, "cool" air is also drawn through the carburetor hole to mix with the "hot" air coming from the top of the pipe, thus providing a "cooler, drier smoke". That's the theory anyway.
The idea is that when drawing on the pipe, "cool" air is also drawn through the carburetor hole to mix with the "hot" air coming from the top of the pipe, thus providing a "cooler, drier smoke". That's the theory anyway.
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