Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-03-16
MEE4sCHaUM PIPES.
where the Material is Found-Facts
about Manufacture.
From The New York Herald.

From the New York Herald
The meerschaum comes to the workman
i'll all kinds Of shapes and sizes, and he
makes the most Of the piece in his hand
according to his skill. 1t is species of
clay, not soft and pliable, nor dissolyable
like kaoline. 1t retains its shape and
when soitened by the absorption of water
can be cut almost as easily as cheese. The
workman sees in the lump al animal, a
head, figure or landscape. and after
blocking it out turns and pertorates the
interior of the bowl. When finished the
pipe isput into an oven and left to dry for
several hours. Then the parts that need
polishing are attended to by girls, and
where there is no carving the whole bowl
is polished. The girls use Natures file,
the first discovered by man-the bullrush.
This gives beautiful surface aud the pipe
is then ready for the final process, the
wax bath.
The bath reveals whatever imperfections
there may be In the material, such as
flaws, veins or cracks, and determines the
quality, which may De creamy, mottled,
coarse or fine. If meerschaum pipe were
use IN its natural state, it would never
show any color, and would soon become
soiled, just like . clay pipe. All this is
prevented by the wax, which fills the
pores on the outside and gives the meer-
schaum kind of enamel, keeps back the
oil of tobacco, and shows the beautiful
color so highly priced.
A new pipe should never be smoked out
OF doors in very cold weather, nor laid on
cold marble or glass, as frost is apt to
check or crack the meerschaum, especially
when ii is very fine, but these cracks gen
orally extend only as deep as the wax
coating.
So far as known, meerschaum is found
in no other part of the world than the
pretty little village of Eskischia, in Ash
attic Turkey The component parts of
meerschaum are said to be magnesia slick
and flint, and sometimes traces of iron,
earth and other minerals are found in it.
Once upon a time it was death to the
Christians to go near the mines, which go
under the ground some thirty feet, and are
aired and kept dry by 4 windmill. The
Turks do not believe in overproduction nor
III flooding the market, and prices never
come down, but generally have an upward
tendency whenever the Government needs
a larger supply of funds, for the greatest
expense In mining the production is the
taxes of the Government. The indolent
natives mine for a couple of hours or so
and then lie Off in the sun with their
coffee and tobacco. With knife they
scrape off the earth from the lump of
meerschaum; then they take the oily leaf
OF a tree which grows in tie vicinity and
rub the lump smooth and give it some
thing of polish. In this condition it is
sold 10 the merchants.
A material very much like mereshaum
is found in Spain and the United States,
but 1t bears no comparison with the Turk
ish meerschaum. The imitation meer-
schaum comes from the chips and shay
lngs of the genuine article. They are first
ground or mashed into a pulp and then
mixed with some binding chemicals so as
to keep the molecules togethsk The i'm
itation can not retain the oil of tobacco,
and uusally cracks when filed with ME
otiue.
a coed meerschaum can be bought for
81 90 or IS, but those with good carving
will cost $40, S25, $40 and $50 each, and
can be made to run away above that The
largest pipe ever manufactured in this
country was put on exhibition last year in
the Ext osition. it is bulls head. with
amber horns and mouthpieee, and is valued
at $500. The Kaldenberg exhibit, rep
resenting all the Presidents of the United
States. that of George Washington being
a large bust, took the gold medal.