Rope Theory

I can see that. I think another reason they were smaller pipes was also due to high taxes on tobacco, but tobacco like ropes would definitely be cause for a smaller pipes.

Sounds good to me. I haven't tried any rope tobacco, as I'm quite nicotine intolerant, but now I might have to. I use very small bowls to smoke strong tobaccos, such as plug tobaccos that I like the taste of, but would mess me up if I smoked too much.

Any type of ropes you've tried that you like?

hey man size matters..

So you're not supposed to drink espresso by the thermos?

When I was a much younger fellow than I am now and had just become a pipe smoker I visited my uncle up in the foot hills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.He was a full time farmer who grew amoung other things tobacco.He had made his own rope tobacco.He had soaked it in either molasses,honey,or maple syrup.He was a pretty forceful fellow so I filled a bowl and started puffing.I asked him how in the world he smoked that crap he said I don't I chew it.Maybe some day I'll try some more rope tobacco..If my eyes ever stop spinning from the first time.

My great uncle George, an ex marine (UK), told me how he used to make his own rope by plaiting together his tobacco ration, soaking it in his rum ration then coating it in honey to dry out and form a protective shell around it.

I'm not at that stage yet,baby steps for me.

At least I've moved on to flakes.

I think your rope is somewhat frayed. When the explorers first met the Indians in the New World most of them (Indians) were either snuffing ground up tobacco through tubes inserted into their noses or they were smoking the leaf in very small pipes. The most likely reason for the small pipes was that they were smoking Rustica, a very potent, high nicotine tobacco. There are many written observations of the Europeans observing the Indians inhaling their tobacco and falling down in convulsions and writhing on the ground (possible nic overdose?). When the Europeans took this new tobacco idea back to the Old World it only makes sense that they mimicked what they saw... smoking in a small pipe.
When tobacco began to be successfully grown and shipped back to England the whole leaf was pressed into barrels and shipped. The tobacco was then unpacked and either shredded for smoking in a pipe or ground to a powder for snuff (the other observed Indian form of taking in tobacco).
The small pipe also made sense from a manufacturing standpoint. Clay was fragile. A small pipe was a lot more durable than a big clay pipe. Additionally, pipe smokers typically carried a lot of stuff with them such as a tobacco box as well as tongues to be used to pick up a hot coal to light their pipe with.
Most likely pipes were small because that's what the first explorers were introduced to. Think about when Coke was first introduced. It came in small (8 ounces I think) bottles. When other companies started to produce similar drinks like Pepsi etc they too came in small bottles. Eventually over time the small coke bottle morphed in to gigantic 2 liter bottles.

Rope tobacco was traditionally prepared in that fashion and sold as a 'Quid' which was either chewed or cut into slices and smoked. It really only re-appeared in general circulation in the 1980s as a curiosity although plug tobacco did exist in places like Ireland but were more ethnocentric and were not sold in the UK shops until the early 1980s as far as I am aware.