Questions About Pipe Smoking In The Past

[kalvort]

Hello everyone,

I've been thinking about a few questions lately, maybe some of the older members in this forum can help me and others interested in these questions.
100 years ago:
1) How did they store tobacco back in the day? I have seen pouches, but were jars readily available? What about keeping large amounts of tobacco fresh / moisture?
2) What were people mainly smoking? Virginias? English? Was there a price difference between them? For example, did 'upper class' individuals smoke something different to the general public?
3) What was the preferred shape of pipe back in the day?
4) How much did people smoke during the day? Did they smoke all day?
5) What about tampers? Did they even have tampers or cleaners? How were pipes maintained?
I wish we could go back to when smoking was accepted and allowed everywhere. I'm only 29, but it does bring me back to my younger years where I would see people smoking cigarettes and where everything was more calm and peaceful, with regards to smoking anyway! I know I know it's better for everyone's health, and that's very true, but things just seemed simpler and I always find comfort in the past.
If anyone else has any questions please feel free to add them.
Many thanks in advance

 

[jpmcwjr]

I'll hazard that a century ago, the main difference was there were no Danish style/freehands to speak of. Everything else was available, jars large and small, tampers, cleaners. Probably the billiard was the predominant shape, and today, while not predominant, there are likely more billiards than any other single shape.

 

[olkofri]

5) What about tampers? Did they even have tampers or cleaners? How were pipes maintained?

Tampers were in existence at least 200 years ago; they used to be called 'tobacco-stoppers'.

 

[seacaptain]

They kept Prince Albert in a can. Good times.

 

[sparroa]

In the nineteenth century, at least, plug tobacco was very common and often chewed or smoked in a pipe.
Other forms like rope and twist tobacco were also prevalent.
If I recall correctly, meerschaum was also one of the most popular pipe materials until briar came on the scene.
Meers are comparatively rare today.

 

[olkofri]

Meerschaum remained popular even after briar pipes appeared. It wasn't until the mechanisation of pipe-making that briar gained the upper hand, as manufacturers were finally able to crank out more pipes –and 'saturate' the market– than their Meerschaum-carving competition.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Orific amber stems and bone tenons were more common place 100 years ago as well.

 

[warren]

A hundred years ago? 1918? Briar was the established material for commercial pipe making, as it is today. Pretty much all of the "established shapes" were available. Meerschaum was an Asian/African product and had a small following as it does today. In the Western world, blends were not as available as they are today with the advent of cheaper travel and the internet and increased demand. Dunhill was blending recipes for customers in England in the early 1900's. But, finding a Dunhill, as an example, pipe or blend a hundred years ago? That would have been difficult in Boston, Chicago or Oshkosh. Local smoke shops were well stocked with a minimal selection. No TV, no nationwide radio to speak off, national magazines were few and far between, movies hadn't had their impact on smoking, so smoking wasn't being driven by advertising sucking in the younger generation, it wasn't "cool" yet.
Many dining establishments either prohibited smoking or severely restricted it. Chefs wanted diners to be able to enjoy the smells and tastes of their creations, not stale smoke. Many wives prohibited smoking in the house or severely restricted where and even when to allow such. Many men wore smoking jackets, even caps, so to keep the reek they hauled around, minimal.
I really do not know of a time when smoking was "celebrated" by society in general. It's been tolerated over the years but, never embraced. There was a time though, when the US Government subsidized and encouraged farmers growing tobaccos, allowed the manufacturers of cigarettes to provide freebies to the military and so on. But, society as a whole has never embraced smoking, only tolerated it to a certain extant.

 

[thomasw]

One hundred years ago I would think very few pipe smokers had the need to cellar to the extent that pipers do now. Also, there would have been fewer blends for most from which to select. In addition public pipe smoking would have been more normal (in certain places) than now. Less Nanny-state regulations. I wonder whether the cost of tobacco per/ounce was less when comparing wages/purchasing power ratios between today/100 yrs ago?

 

[sablebrush52]

The pipes mostly adhered to the classic French shapes. Most of the best briar work was done in St. Claude and Nuremberg. The best Meerschaum pipes came out of Austria. Most smokers owned one pipe or maybe a few at most. Collections of hundreds of pipes were extremely rare. In the 19th century, most of the British makers bought their bowls from France and did the finishing and mounting in Britain. By the early 20th century, British makers were making some of their pipes entirely in house, but the bulk still came from the Continent.
Pipes tended to be smaller in size as tobacco was a very expensive luxury compared to today. People didn't cellar. They bought what they needed as they needed it. There were more tobacconists who blended their own proprietary blends. The premium blenders aged their tobaccos before selling them. The kinds of tins that many tobaccos came in were called cutter tops, basically a solidly sealed tin that came with a cutter for removing the top. Tobacco could be stored in ceramic or metal containers with screw down tops that had a rubber gasket to provide a seal against the tobacco drying out.
I don't remember when pipe cleaners became widespread, but before that, smokers used a long feather to clean out the airway.
A number of blends that are available today were in use a hundred years ago. For example, records show that the Titanic carried Capstan Blue on its ill fated maiden voyage. All of the types of blends we have today were available a hundred years ago, English, aromatic, Virginia, Burley, etc.
Smokers had safety matches and lighters. Some used a small piece of burning coal, held with tongs, or a glowing ember, to light their pipes.
Since tobacco was so expensive, most smokers probably smoked no more than a bowl a day, and many probably smoked far less often than that like once a week, or once a month. But I have no doubt that there were smokers who smoked several bowls a day, if they had the money.

 

[Chasing Embers]

so smoking wasn't being driven by advertising sucking in the younger generation

 

[Chasing Embers]

My grandfather told us of classes in school when he was a boy that were solely for learning how to smoke a pipe in the 1920s.

 

[condorlover1]

This is something I can answer with high degree of certainty as I had family who served in WW1 and were still alive in the early 1980s. With regard to smoking the average Joe Q Public in the UK would smoke after work in the pub or the Working Mans Club or if a former serving soldier in the equivalent of the Royal British Legion clubs. If you lived outside of London it would be quite common to see men smoking clay pipes and to my certain knowledge in my Great Grand Fathers time (1880's as he was born in 1859 and died in 1960) you could walk into a pub and for one or two old pennies get a pint of beer, bread and cheese and a clay pipe and fill of tobacco. As commented elsewhere people tended to smoke plug or twist tobacco but certainly by 1918 you would have had such UK staples as St Bruno, Condor and Gold Block and Capstan in 'cutter' top tins. People tended to carry plug loose in their pockets although oil skin lined tobacco pouches would have been very familiar. In 1918 UK you would have seen 'pipe knives' which incorporated a tampers, blade and long metal spike and with the return of so many soldiers a spent .303 cartridge case would have been very common as a pipe tamper. Briar pipes would have been fairly common but also you might have encountered a large amount of plain meerschaum pipes especially in the 'cutty' style as so many seem to have survived into the 21st century. In terms of the cost tobacco in the UK my best guess related to present day purchasing power is it was about relative to disposable income today in the U.S $10 vs. weekly wage here whilst in the U.K the result of years of taxes have rendered in an absolute luxury. To put this into perspective an average wage in the U.K in 1919 was 30 shillings a week for an unskilled worker and an oz of tobacco was about half a shilling or 1 1/2% of the weekly wage give or take regional fluctuations. Given the fall in Sterlings purchasing power the figure would probably be nearer 5% today but I am sure some U.K smokers can correct me. As a closing thought by 1918 you would have seen far more cigarette smoking than pipe smoking due to its increased popularity during the war. I hope this sort of answers your question.

 

[perdurabo]

Damn Embers that’s cool. “What class you taken this semester, John?”

“Scotty I’m taking Pipe 101!”
That may be strange, but the good old days are long gone.

 

[sparroa]

I think it is most interesting to look beyond the hundred year mark because, as condorlover notes, the rise of cigarettes and the decline of pipe smoking had already begun by 1918.
I think it would be more interesting to spend a day in someone like Mark Twain's shoes. Living from 1835-1910, he would have been around when pipe tobacco was most mainstream and our notion of branded tobacco blends was really taking off. Today's pipe tobacco is a product of the Industrial Revolution and globalization so it would have been illuminating to see the old fashioned ways colliding with the modern ways back in his day. Still, I'm not sure that I would have liked to smoke what would have been available! It was probably pretty coarse stuff compared to what we are used to now.

 

[sablebrush52]

Early 19th century pipes were primarily clays and meerschaums, with some pipes made from various types of wood. Briar becomes a focus in France in the late 1830's but doesn't really take off until the early 1850's when reports of briar's smoking properties become more widespread. In 1856 a French trader named Loewe opens up a workshop and retail store in the Haymarket district of London and jump starts the briar pipe trade in England. Briar pipes become a huge hit and soon thereafter other French pipe makers, like Charatan and Comoy, set up operations in London.

 

[Chasing Embers]

“Scotty I’m taking Pipe 101!”

They would also play mumblety-peg on school grounds like I did when I was a kid. Imagine doing that now!

 

[warren]

Back in the day when every lad had a finger pistol and used it often with deadly precision. And, "getting lucky" meant taking the morning off from school to butcher the moose you'd shot on the way to classes.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Man, mumblety-peg! I'd forgotten about that. There was also another game we played involving throwing knives into the dirt near feet, but can't recall that name or how it was played.

 

[Chasing Embers]

We called that one chicken or stretch depending on whether you were bringing your feet together or spreading them apart.