The Globe-republican. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1889-1910, 1895-10-31


two German words-meer. sea. and
foam Meerschaum Is mineral
clay found in Turkey and Germany.
Pipe dealers will rarely tell about the
fine art Of coloring and preserving
your meerschaum. The most common
complaint about a meerschaum pipe IL
that it will not color beautifully. even
after months Of most careful attention.
II genuine meerschaum in a pipe does
not take on q good color the fault Is
with the smoker. Ignorance Is the gen.
eral cause of the nasty. muddy discoi-
grafton Of the fine clay. Another reason
why a pipe turns out so badly Is tnas
the owner overdoes his smoking in his
zeal to get it colored. He smokes 1t con-
stantly. When one pipeful Of tobacco IL
smoked out he Immediately ref1lls the
bowl and goes on putting. When warm
from smoking he lays 1t on the mar
BILE mantel to cool on where 1t Will Dc
SAFE It is with him night and day. ana
he smokes it-particularly II he be an
Englishman-in the cold street. the
warm office and house. One day per-
haps it is found broken in its case ana
the owner wonders who has been
handling it. He does not consider that
meerschaum is susceptible to heat anu
cold, expanding with one and contract
ing with the other, and that a sudden
change from heat to cold or cold 10
heat may have the most destructive
effect upon 1t and even snap 1t into
many pieces, particularly II it be most
elegantly carved pipe or one with many
angles and curves.
Laying it upon a cold marble mantel
will often cause 1t to break from the
Sudden contraction. and pipes of meer-
schaum have frequently been known
to snap off at the stem and drop from
the mouths of smokers when they In
cautiously rushed from a hot room In
winter into the freezing atmosphere OF
the street.
II you ever made an attempt to color
a meerschaum pipe you may have
noticed that in your eagerness to pa1ns
it a beautiful brown you have filled 1t
again and again Immediately after
smoking and while 1t was still not
from the former charge Of tobacco.
You have noticed, also, that In short
time the pipe is burned and you have
DESTROYED every vestige of hope that 1t
may ever be colored. 1t will be welt
for the smoker of the meerschaum TO
know that the pipe should become cold
before smoking it a second time. IND
reason is easily explained.
In preparing the meerschaum. after
the artist has finished cutting the de"
sign and has shaped the bowl. the nm
ished pipe is boiled in wax. Wax Is
used for this purpose because 1t pene-
trates the pores and serves to keep the
coloring matter in the pipe. The COLOR
ing matter is the oil of the tobacco
and not the oil of nicotine as is erro.
neously supposed. This oil. of course
comes from the inside and not from the
outside surface of the pipe. The oil oil
tobacco sinks into the meerschaum.
which is of a very fine. porous clay.
The oil is stopped by the wax before
1T is driven out by the heat to the
lOUt0I II6Cc. IL ~ WCAS NV Ava INV
wax the coloring matter would pass
out by oozing to the surface and get
rubbed or dropped of, and the pipe
could never be colored. No smoker
should try to hurry the colorins Of q
pipe, for the wax will be driven out,
and the dry, raw clay will not color
properly.
The smoker should also remember
that the nearer to the top of the bowl
the wax Is kept and preserved. the finer
and broader will be the coloring. The
pipe, therefore, should never be filed
to the top. II this fact were more gen
orally known among smokers We would
not see so many meerschaum pipes with
a dirty brown color at the top. where
the oil has been forced out by the great
heat of the tobacco.