Why Prof. Einstein Smoked Pipe This Way?

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homesteader

Starting to Get Obsessed
Jun 7, 2019
209
545
The tiniest visible gap between the stem and shank bothers me. If you were a perfectionist you might choose to pull the stem partially out to exaggerate the gap so it is now part of the design, and not an imperfection. Just a random thought.
 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,211
60,638
Both Einstein and Tolkien were extra-creative minds that both neglected ordinary details of life, or invented new ways to relate to these details, so I suspect both had quirks in their daily habits -- Einstein more famously, but likely Tolkien too. It is likely neither could have told you why, or would have had to think about it a minute or a week to explain it. I'd subscribe to the less-clean pipe theory, but these guys were haunted by their notions, so it might be something more esoteric in either case, or both.
 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,211
60,638
... the Duke of Windsor post suggests that maybe this was a mannerism cultivated by the royals and aspiring gents to show how fastidiously they maintained their pipes, always keeping the stem loose to better clean the pipe? Farfetched but a possibility.
 
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kurtbob

Lifer
Jul 9, 2019
2,131
12,762
58
SE Georgia
I’m not gonna lie, I’m a cheap SOB. I do that with my cobs all the time. When the cheap plastic stems start to wear and get loose when all the way pushed in, I pull em out a little till they are tight. Hell, I can get another 8 months out of a stem......yup a cheap SOB:ROFLMAO:
 

greeneyes

Lifer
Jun 5, 2018
2,274
12,635
Modern-day smokers generally smoke, use pipe cleaners occasionally while they smoke, and then rest the pipe before removing the stem to clean it further.

I've seen several older gentlemen smoke their pipe and remove the stem while smoking to clean it. My best guess is that this practice has something to do with this. Either the stem doesn't re-insert fully on the warm, and now-expanded pipe, or leaving it incompletely inserted makes it easier to continue to remove it and clean it.

It makes sense. Not every pipe passes or passed a pipe cleaner, and indeed several stem passage bores are so narrow as to suggest the manufacturer never intended them to. Add to that the fact that stingers certainly don't allow the use of pipe cleaners.
 

Pipelady20

Can't Leave
Apr 17, 2020
461
1,902
East coast, USA
www.pipesmagazine.com
Modern-day smokers generally smoke, use pipe cleaners occasionally while they smoke, and then rest the pipe before removing the stem to clean it further.

I've seen several older gentlemen smoke their pipe and remove the stem while smoking to clean it. My best guess is that this practice has something to do with this. Either the stem doesn't re-insert fully on the warm, and now-expanded pipe, or leaving it incompletely inserted makes it easier to continue to remove it and clean it.

It makes sense. Not every pipe passes or passed a pipe cleaner, and indeed several stem passage bores are so narrow as to suggest the manufacturer never intended them to. Add to that the fact that stingers certainly don't allow the use of pipe cleaners.
See this is why I can't bring myself to buy a pipe that costs more than maybe $50-60 (yet). I'm pretty hard on my pipes and I will pull it apart if the pipe cleaner won't go through while smoking.
 

tacoman

Lurker
May 16, 2011
11
10
I do it in slow smoke contests so that I can remove the stem and shake out the liquid without disturbing the burning tobacco. As BROBS suggests, as if it were an army mount. That’s my guess.
 
Jun 23, 2019
1,937
13,236
EDIT: Fixed Capitalization in Title (See Rule 9)

My friend sent me this pic asking why Einstein smoked with a part of the mouthpiece pulled out. I found many pictures showing that he smoked pipe this way. I absolutely have no idea about this method. Anybody here smokes like this? and why?

Happy smoking.
View attachment 34744

Tolkien too.

View attachment 34749

I've heard it said it has a cooling effect similar to a reverse calabash. If that's the case, sounds like they didn't know how to smoke.

The tiniest visible gap between the stem and shank bothers me. If you were a perfectionist you might choose to pull the stem partially out to exaggerate the gap so it is now part of the design, and not an imperfection. Just a random thought.

Modern-day smokers generally smoke, use pipe cleaners occasionally while they smoke, and then rest the pipe before removing the stem to clean it further.

I've seen several older gentlemen smoke their pipe and remove the stem while smoking to clean it. My best guess is that this practice has something to do with this. Either the stem doesn't re-insert fully on the warm, and now-expanded pipe, or leaving it incompletely inserted makes it easier to continue to remove it and clean it.

It makes sense. Not every pipe passes or passed a pipe cleaner, and indeed several stem passage bores are so narrow as to suggest the manufacturer never intended them to. Add to that the fact that stingers certainly don't allow the use of pipe cleaners.

So immediately I noticed that both pipes had a wider shank/mouth piece, and this is exactly what I do with my pipes with these wider stems (the straight brandy shape in particular, also Castello Canadian or the shorter Shape 15).

It's a mixture of having to clean the pipe sometimes while smoking and having a flat stem which is surprisingly difficult to line up exactly shank/mouthpiece. (Something this also happens with the diamond shanks on my bulldog pipes).
 

3rdguy

Lifer
Aug 29, 2017
3,472
7,299
Iowa
I will say, just put a forever stem on a cob and it does not seat all the way and I left it like that thinking it will be easier to remove the stem midway through a smoke....maybe Einstein was not stupid :ROFLMAO:

It’s a cob so...