History of Pipe Cleaning

[jvnshr]

I was thinking about an issue as I was smoking my pipe. As we all know, nowadays pipe cleaning is an essential part of the hobby. There are bristle cleaners, regular cleaners, regular bristle cleaners, tapered bristle cleaners, pipe shank brushes, polishing clothes, etc. nowadays. We should clean our pipes after every single smoke and do some deep cleaning once in a while. I just wonder how it was 20-30 years ago. Because, as I know back then pipe smokers were just enjoying their pipes and skipping that cleaning part and forming a huge cake inside the bowl. So, let's hear some old-timers.

 

[condorlover1]

Well I do know that about 1900 you cleaned your briar pipe with a feather and scrapped the bowl with your pocket blade every now and again. If you smoked a clay pipe you tossed it into the glowing embers of the fire at night to burn off all the crud assuming you didn't break it and replace it in the course of your day or drop it down your outside privy! I don't exactly know when pipe cleaners became widely available although they seem to have been fairly common by WW1 as I have come across packets of them whilst sorting through personal effect bundles returned for members of my family killed during the Great War that just sat untouched in the attic.

 

[ray47]

I clean my pipes after each smoke the same way I did 30+ yrs ago. A pipe cleaner thru the stem and shank and then bend the pipe cleaner in half and swab out the bowl. I remember back in the 50's & 60's the old guys would clean their pipes the same way after each smoke.

 

[jensen]

I have a copy of a catolog from Lügumkloster Pfeifenfabrik C.H.Söhne from before the great war.Lügumkloster is in the southern part of Denmark and as we lost a 1864 war it was german from 1864 to 1920.My grandfather and my grandmothers brothers had to join the war but not on the same side as Condorlovers family I think.
In the catalog we have: Filters (like todays 9 mm) brushes,a tool to the shank,a tool to the bowl and the most strange "normal pipecleaners"......written on the paper : Briar GBD pipes. 10 pieces in a pack.Price Mark 0,90

for a dozen.Thats is the only thing there is not German in that catalog.
50 years back pocketmoney was 5,- pr week.50 gram of tobacco was around 3,- so there was almost no maybe 0,50

for pipecleaners.So, I once spoiled a nice Butz C. bent bulldog by useing a match when is was blocked, I could not get the match out again.

 

[papipeguy]

the pipe cleaner was invented in Rochester, NY in the early 1900's. This is a neat article on the subject.
https://rebornpipes.com/tag/history-of-pipe-cleaners/

 

[condorlover1]

Well that great to know as I always thought the technology was similar to that employed in the manufacture of barbed wire!

 

[jpmcwjr]

There's a segment on the manufacture on "How It's Made". Boggles my mind.

 

[jvnshr]

Wow, thanks for the info guys.

 

[Waning Embers]

http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/how-its-made-pipe-cleaners-1

 

[ahmadothman]

Well, the real interesting part would be a 100 years ago, not 30