It Must Have Been Expensive to Learn How to Smoke a Pipe 100+ Years Ago

[mikethompson]

Given the relative expense of tobacco roughly a century ago, it must have been an expensive endeavour to learn proper breathing and cadence.

I think of all the bowls I've ruined trying to get flavours out, breathing too fast, etc etc, it would have cost me a relative fortune 100+ years ago.

In just basing this on the fairly small bowls of very old pipes and the general belief that this was because tobacco was so expensive.

Am I on to something?

 

[jpmcwjr]

Dunno.

But on what do you base the "relative expense"?

 

[stokesdale]

No, you're not on to anything. Back then they didn't care. They smoked their piped, they cleaned it with a twig, they didn't worry about flushing it because it would have taken a hell of a lot of effort to build a fire for hot water, they dumped their pipe out, they refilled it, and they smoked it again...they simply didn't care. That's what amazed me when I first found this forum...and why I still post on threads telling people to STOP AGONIZING OVER SHIT AND ENJOY YOUR PIPE...STOP WORRYING ABOUT ALL THE STUPID LITTLE CRAP ALREADY!!! There ?

 

[anotherbob]

The pipes where cheap and the tobacco expensive. Though if you smoke one of the strains that was available at the time the nic levels more then made up for the cost difference.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Hmmm, if you are basing your presumption that tobacco was expensive solely on the size of the bowls, that may not be enough evidence. Because pipe tobacco smokers of old, used to mostly smoke heavier burleys that would make limp wristed, pencil necked Virginia smokers of today die immediately of overdose. Small bowls were all that was needed, because the tobacco was more powerful.

That is not to diminish the idea that tobacco was expensive, because it very well could have been also.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

The pipes where cheap and the tobacco expensive.

It was my understanding that early on, the pipes came prepacked. You smoked the pipe, and tossed it away. But, I also understand that this was at a point when the clay pipes were being mass produced fairly cheaply by both Native Americans and back in England.

 

[condorlover1]

Tobacco wasn't that expensive in 1920. A 1 oz War Horse Plug was only 9d or Nine Pennies which was 3d short of One Shilling. A reasonable wage in 1920 for a working man was 30 Shillings a week with a professional man earning maybe Three Hundred and Fifty Pounds a year. The Thirty Shilling chap paid no income tax

 

[stokesdale]

Tobacco wasn't that expensive in 1920. A 1 oz War Horse Plug was only 9d or Nine Pennies which was 3d short of One Shilling. A reasonable wage in 1920 for a working man was 30 Shillings a week with a professional man earning maybe Three Hundred and Fifty Pounds a year. The Thirty Shilling chap paid no income tax

"A 1 oz War Horse Plug was only 9d or Nine Pennies which was 3d short of One Shilling. The Thirty Shilling chap paid no income tax."

I swear, I know I'm just a 'colonist' and all, but I'm trying to say that 3 times fast, and I just can't do it...I just can't...

 

[cosmicfolklore]

"A 1 oz War Horse Plug was only 9d or Nine Pennies which was 3d short of One Shilling. The Thirty Shilling chap paid no income tax."

I swear, I know I'm just a 'colonist' and all, but I'm trying to say that 3 times fast, and I just can't do it...I just can't...

I know, I don't even know what these words mean. It's like hearing that someone makes 8 flouncenougats a day, and pays only 84 cogginsacs a day for food. Is he rich or poor? I think a shilling means an oz of gold? d's are... ummm... donuts?

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I read a lot of Japanese novels, and it's always weird to read about them taking 9 million yen with them to the store. WTF? Can't they just come up with new words for a million yen? Carrying around that sort of cash must mean everyone has wallets the size of steamer trunks.

 

[canucklehead]

People also used to typically inhale and also smoke primarily for the purposes of nicotine intoxication, so the whole breathing/cadence/extracting flavours thing wasn't really as big of a deal.

People were also more likely to grow their own tobacco patch and cobble together a pipe out of whatever wood, soft stone, clay, bone, or vegetable was at hand.

 

[bullet08]

Just came in from a nice bowl of Charing Cross. Was actually thinking about this, sorta. Not the cost, but how they smoked. I did get a lot of help from the forum when I first started out. A lot of try and error thing. Would the people from way back when looked for proper technique? Or just puff away like cigarettes and cigars? Now days I don't really thinking about what I'm doing. It's like smoking cigarettes now, automatic action. If they had father or uncle, would they really mentor new pipe smokers?

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Just came in from a nice bowl of Charing Cross. Was actually thinking about this, sorta. Not the cost, but how they smoked. I did get a lot of help from the forum when I first started out. A lot of try and error thing. Would the people from way back when looked for proper technique? Or just puff away like cigarettes and cigars? Now days I don't really thinking about what I'm doing. It's like smoking cigarettes now, automatic action. If they had father or uncle, would they really mentor new pipe smokers?

I never had to have someone set down and spell all of this out for me. But, I saw people smoking pipes all of my life. Even now, you can find pipesmokers in my area out and about. I think needing mentorship mostly comes from people who live in areas of the world where pipe smokers either don't exist or they just don't go out in public much.

 

[tobefrank]

Given the relative expense of tobacco roughly a century ago, it must have been an expensive endeavour to learn proper breathing and cadence.

I think of all the bowls I've ruined trying to get flavours out, breathing too fast, etc etc, it would have cost me a relative fortune 100+ years ago.

In just basing this on the fairly small bowls of very old pipes and the general belief that this was because tobacco was so expensive.

Am I on to something?

Maybe the bowls were smaller because people didn't sit down for an hour, but instead smoked a pipe in the time it would nowadays take to smoke a cigarette?

 

[Chasing Embers]

In just basing this on the fairly small bowls of very old pipes a

Many pipes I've had and do have from before WWI have had chambers of 1.5" in depth or more. Very similar to standard modern pipes. The only smaller pieces I've had are Depression era, but I think that was more lack of materials than cost. Even magnum sized pieces were made in the late 1800s.

to learn proper breathing and

I think that's recent thinking. Back then, folks just smoked them until they couldn't be smoked anymore.

 

[mso489]

When tobacco first arrived in England and Holland, and other European countries, it was a luxury item that required importation by sailing ship, so it was a privilege of the upper class. Once it became more of a commodity, it was available to working people, probably sailors first who were making ports in the new world. But for a long time, for the working man, it was an end-of-the day reward. By WWI, it had become an all-day pleasure as shown by pipes hanging out of the mouths of soldiers, railroad men, etc., at work and at leisure. I'm entirely guessing, but that's my hunch based on reports, paintings and photographs. Native North Americans had a good supply back in history, but probably smoked back at "home," not hunting etc.

 

[hauntedmyst]

It was crazy back then. Tobacco was hard to get. You had to order it mail order then wait for it to arrive. On top of that there was insane taxes and high prices. Then you had to get permits and go through red tape. Then of course, when it arrived, you had to go outside since it was illegal to smoke in the workplace and lots of other indoor locations. Wait. That's now. I think learning to smoke back then was a breeze by comparison.

 

[elvishrunes]

Very interesting topic. Generally most older societies were poorer than recent ones, although average standard of living has dropped recently in many Western societies, specially the US, but that is for other reasons, another discussion,,, I remember reading the of King France a few hundreds years ago, thought every commoner should have chicken at least once a week on Sunday, now even a homeless man can probably get a 2 dollar Tuesday KFC meal...lol So tobacco was probably hard to get for many throughout history unless they grew it, or it was a “boom” time for the industry...

But right now we are definitely in the golden age of pipes, even though nobody smokes... Look at all the awesome blends we can get at affordable prices, and amazing pipes at sort of affordable prices, or just cheap pipes like cobs just to have a puff.

 

[Misanthrope]

It was my understanding that early on, the pipes came prepacked. You smoked the pipe, and tossed it away. But, I also understand that this was at a point when the clay pipes were being mass produced fairly cheaply by both Native Americans and back in England.

This is also the genesis of the bandoleer. You needed a way to carry a day's worth of prepacked disposable pipes, and then some ingenious wit figured out that it would work just as well for bullets.

 

[mikethompson]

Dunno.

But on what do you base the "relative expense"?

I'd say Canadian tobacco prices, but then everything is cheaper by comparison.

Tobacco wasn't that expensive in 1920

Maybe I should have thought before then. I'm thinking of maybe mid 1800s then?

The only smaller pieces I've had are Depression era, but I think that was more lack of materials than cost. Even magnum sized pieces were made in the late 1800s.

I never thought about material cost and availability, good points. But I will say that while there were probably always large pipes, I'm not sure they were the norm. Kind of like how there are diamond encrusted sunglasses, but that's not what most people have.

I wish I could find the references I've read to tobacco being more expensive in the past, but I suppose I could be wrong too.

But right now we are definitely in the golden age of pipes, even though nobody smokes... Look at all the awesome blends we can get at affordable prices, and amazing pipes at sort of affordable prices, or just cheap pipes like cobs just to have a puff.

Couldn't agree more. As someone who lives outside the states, I chuckle when I read gripes about US state taxes. Not to mention the ease of pipe availability now.