Very interesting. I wonder if KV puffed those goopy German aros? Didn't Dunhill's innertube do much the same thing? I think that too was patented, and may have been before pipe cleaners were invented.
hp
Kurt Vonnegut the author was in Germany in October of 1944, in the Army; most likely too busy to be filing for pipe patents, as well as a lifelong cigarette smoker.