Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1913-07-25
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HOME OF THE MEERscHAUM.
Originally From Asiatie Turkey and Is
Supposed to be Petrified Sea Foam.


Not at all a bad idea If you have plen-
ty of time. And you do have time In
Turkey, or at least feel that you have,
otherwise you would not stay there
very long. / was in no hurry when ]
set my face toward the east. So when
the train on the first night out from
Constantinople rested at Eski Schier /
decided to stop for day or two.
But Eski Schier has one unique claim
upon your interest, and If you are a
smoker the claim is a compelling one.
It is the home Of the meerschaum
Meerschaum in abundance is found on
ly on the plain of Eski Schier, and this
city produces all the marketable meer-
schaum in the world.
Meerschaum, as the name implies. is
supposed to be petrified sea foam, and
has been discovered floating on the
Black Sea. Aside from the Eski Schier
mines, it occurs in Greece, Samos,
| Spain, Moravia, Utah, Pennsylvania,
Cat Nottingham, in Chester county,
and in conjunction with serpentine, in
Norway and South Carolina. The an
clients are said to have used 1t for dec
orative stone in buildings, and this
seems to have been confirmed by the
recent excavations in Corfu. 1t Is soft
and whitish and becomes malleable like
clay when soaked in water.
Meerschaum used to be considered a
mere curiosity by the Turks, who had
no other use for it than as a substitute
for fuller's soap. The story runs that
the Turkish ambassador at the Aus
trian court, back in the eighteenth cen
tury, was a native Of Eski Schier
Wanting to help his city at a time OF
great poverty he took samples Of this
queer stuff to Vienna, thinking that the
Franks, as all foreigners were then
called, might have some use for 1t.
The Germans were quick to see its
| utility for pipe bowls, but declared
that it was good for nothing else. More
than a century has confirmed this
| Judgment, for who has discovered any
other use for meerschaum? For pipe
making it is the ideal raw material
Here is a stone which is easily mould
ed when wet and when dry becomes
hard and resists fire.
At first meerschaum was used only
by certain Viennese and Bavarian
firms. To them 1t was merely a good
| raw material, whose merit was in the
ease of manufacture for the fancy
pipes to which Germans have always
been addicted, rather than in any in
trinsic superiority of the manufactured
article. In time men began to enjoy
the fun Of coloring a meerschaum bowl,
and tourists spread this report among
the elite Of all nations. After its in
PRODUCTION to American smokers the
meerschaum rapidly became the aristo-
crat Of pipes. Prices went up accord
ingly, and the mining and export of
meerschaum became boom for Eski
Schier.
In the early days of meerschaum min
ing Sultan Selim Ill gave an imperial
firman to the inhabitants of Eski
Schier and it's neighboring villages,
granting to them for all time the ex-
elusive privilege Of mining the mineral.
Ever since then large portion Of the
population has been engaged in the
meerschaum industry. The mines, fif-
teen miles from the city, have always
been worked Turkish fashion, without
any system whatever.
There Is no possibility Of trust"
or even Of the introduction of modern
methods Of mining. Each man is for
himself. None has any capital. The
prospecting and mining go on over an
increasingly large area, and am told
that about 5000 shafts have been sunk,
most of them branching out into innu-
merable horizontal galleries at different
levels. The snoring is so crude that
did not care to risk going down. That
from the collapsing of galleries and the
frequency Of poisonous and explosive
gases, meerschaum mining exacts every
year its toll of human life. Safety
lamps are unknown.
Meerschaum is found in Jumps of
rather small size, ranging from mans
fist to four time a mans fist. (That Ia
how they measure it, for centimeters
and inches, plain, square or cubic, are
unknown to the miners.) There Is still
much dirt clinging to the Jumps when
they are brought to town on donkey
back.
The miners sell to local merchants,
who are mostly the third or fourth
generation in the business. The mer-
chant must estimate the value in its
rough form, and, in spite of inherited
skill and knowledge, he finds his buy
ing somewhat lottery. For there are
and the lowest is worth only one-sixth
the price of the highest The quality
| is determined by specific gravity, col
or, and, to a more limited extent than
with precious stones, by its size. The
rough outer surface is scraped off with
a knife. Then the meerschaum, still
damp and safe, is set out to dry. When
it becomes hard 1t receives a second
scraping and is rounded off. The fin
ishing operation is to polish it with
wax. The better grades are snow
white and take very high polish. The
poorer grades. even when dry, are SO
soft that they can easily be indented
! with the finger nails.
Thus prepared for market, the Jumps
are separated into bins according to
quality. Once year they are packed
for shipping, with cotton, in boxes
which look like orange crates. On first
sight one would think he was looking
at ostrich eggs. The whole output of
Eski Schier is shipped to Trieste, and
the merchants go to Vienna to sell
| their goods. This is the sole-Jnarket
The Turkish government gets no rev.
enue from the mines, but charges a
fixed export duty per case. The duty
used to be on the ad valorem basis un-
til the Turkish authorities discovered
tho 70 hot ba iob