Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1873-09-13
MEERSCHA UNI AND MEERSCHA UNI
pipes

MEERSCHA UNI AND MEERSCHA UNI
PIPES.
Meerschaum is fine, white clay, |
consisting of equal parts of maghe-
STA, silica and water. II is mined
out of the earth in different parts of
Europe and Asia When first taken out
it is soft aud pliable, and makes lather,
like soap, but on exposure to the air be-
comes somewhat hard and brittle. After
being fashioned into pipes and cigar
holders, the articles are boiled in oil or
wax, and then baked, to render them
tough. Meerschaum is found in the
greatest quantities in the Crimea and
along the Caspian coast, whence it is
taken up the Danube, to be carved in
the Vienna factories. The Austrian
capital has no rival in pipe-making, her
meerschaums being famed the world
over. The business gives employment
to nearly 5000 people of that city, and
the value of the articles produced is
about 5000, 900 forms. Pipes are man
ufactured there as large as pumpkins,
and pipes of diminutive size; pipes
that represent every known type of hui
man counteuance on their bowls, and
furnish a curious study of comparative
physiognomy pipes that illustrate the
whole heather mythology in their elab
crate carvings, and that ransack history
and poetry for figures and groups as or
naments, and draw beside upon the real,
everyday life of peasants, sailors, hunt
ers, miners. There are love scenes, Sc
rious and humorous, drinking bouts
under the trees, and hunting parties.
Imagine anything you please in animal
nature, and the chances are more than
equal that the Vienna pipe-maker has
already carved it in meerschaum
In this connection, the history of how
the famous meerschaum pipe had its
origin may not be uninteresting. The
story runs somewhat in this wise: In
1928 there lived in Pesth, the capital of
Hungary, Karol Kowates, shoemaker,
whose ingenuity in cutting and carving
on wood, ETC., brought him into contact
with Count Andrassy, ancestor of the
present Prime Minister of Austria, with
whom he became favorite. The Count,
on his return from mission to Turkey,
brought with him large piece of
whitish clay, which had been presented
to him as a curiosity, on account of its
extraordinary light specific gravity. 1t
struck the shoemaker that, being porous,
it must naturally be well adapted for
pipes, as it would absorb the nicotine.
The experiment. was tried, and Karol
cut pipe for the Count and one for
himself. But in the pursuit of his trade
he could not keep his hands clean, and
many piece of shoemaker's wax be-
came attached to the pipe. The clay,
however, instead of assuming dirty
appearance, as was naturally to lie ex-
pected, when Karol wiped it off re-
ceived, wherever the wax had touched,
clear, brown polish, instead of the
dull white it previously had. Attribut-
ing this change in the tint to the proper
source, he waxed the whole surface, and
polishing the pipe, again smoked it, and
noticed how admirably and beautifully
it colored also how much more sweetly
the pipe smoked after being waxed.
Karol had struck the smoking philoso-
piers stone and other noblemen, hear
ing of the wonderful properties of this
singular species of clay, imported it in
considerable quantities for the manu-
facture of pipes. The natural scarcity
of this much-esteemed article, and the
great cost of importation in those days
of limited facilities for transportation,
rendered its use exclusively confined to
the richest European noblemen, until
1880, when it became q more general
article of trade. The first meerschaum
pipe made by Karol Kowates has been
preserved in the Museum of Pesth.