A Nifty Novelty --- Velvet Smokarols

[misterlowercase]

I've mentioned these sorts of old pre-packed pipe cartridges before, most notably those from Dunhill who had patented his version of the form in 1910...

John Loring tells us this:

"The first packaging development was the 1910 offering of “Self-Filling Tobacco Cartridges”, paper ‘shotgun shell like’ cylinders of tobacco that slipped right into the pipe bowl. While Dunhill obtained a patent for its version of this packaging/filling system in 1910, the concept was not a new one and was offered at the time by others as well. Aside from cost the basic problem with the system was the need to keep the pipe well and evenly reamed so that the cartridges would continue to fit over time. Dunhill continued to both develop the concept, obtaining additional patents in 1918 and 1920, and to offer its blends in cartridge form up to and probably briefly after World War II. The self filling cartridges were sold by unit rather then weight and were favored by both Edward Prince of Wales and his brother King George VI. Indeed according to Balfour, supra, the former abandoned his namesake “prince” (shape 314) pipe for the somewhat similar 302 shape that was better suited for cartridges. Similarly, George VI had Dunhill make him a special pipe, with a built in reamer, particularly suited to the cartridge system. "
http://www.loringpage.com/pipearticles/duntob1.htm

The general idea had been around for quite some while and a few different manufacturers made their own slightly different versions.
Here's a patent write-up circa 1908 which was one among many in the early 20th C and I include this one because it mentions perique, which I thought was interesting...

...and these versions were available from Carreras:

But I had never seen an American version until recently spotting an old tin of Velvet Smokarols --- although I had seen the namesake pipes which were made specific for them, it never clicked that Smokarol was an actual brandname of a tobacco cartridge.
Liggett & Myers brought them out in 1915 and from gauging the glowing reports in several tobacco trade publications of the time they were very popular right from the get go --- yet in reality, and historically, they were, I think, a rather spectacular failure and were not in production for any sustained amount of time.
Here's the tin:

Here's the patent drawing:

The introduction of Smokarols was accompanied with an advertising campaign, which along with the specially designed pipes probably gave them a boost for a short time.
Notice also that the Smokarol pipes have an "air space" design,

so it seems that the "air pocket method" has been around for a very long time!
Here's a few of the ads:

 

[papipeguy]

Fascinating, as usual.

 

[lestrout]

Yo Troy
Very nice excursion into alternative ways of loading the pipe. Thank you.
hp

les

 

[snagstangl]

Vauen pipoo is still continuing the tradition. I thought maybe i could do this with flavored cigars, that are mild otherwise but who knows. I know people will finish a cigar in a pipe.

 

[gtrhtr]

Very interesting indeed. I could see times when I would use a pipe loader type device if they existed. Not always or even most of the time, but I would certainly put one to use.

 

[mcitinner1]

I had one of the Baron's Cartridge Cases just like the one in the your photo. I ended up selling it to a collector in Japan though.

 

[danielplainview]

Great post. I enjoyed the read. Thanks for posting.

 

[deathmetal]

Interesting the amount of innovation that goes into pipe technique.

 

[misterlowercase]

Somebody back then was always trying to build a better mousetrap.
Recently stumbled across these, which appear to be like a DIY poor mans version of the cartridges.
Pretty interesting it all is.

 

[deathmetal]

At that point, you might as well just have the tobacco version of a fast-loader: a chamber measured to the right size that the user then fills with tobacco, and depresses a plug to discharge into the pipe bowl at the right level of compression.