Tavern Pipes Revisited

Since my last post on the topic of clay pipes Tobacco Drinking (see July 13, 2010), the germ theory has been disproven. The "story" was more of a matter of applying our 21st century life styles and beliefs to an 18th century practice.

Mary Miley Theobold in her blog History Myths Debunked (http://historymyths.wordpress.com/?s=pipes) gives this explanation:
While attending a conference for museum professionals in Annapolis, MD, recently, I learned something new about broken pipe stems from Tony Lindauer, Anne Arundel County archaeologist. Men did sometimes break off the tip of the pipe stem, although certainly not for sanitary reasons. Tony explained that as the hot, tar-filled tobacco smoke is sucked up the stem, it cools a little, and when it gets to the moist mouth, it cools significantly and solidifies. Soon a deposit of tar builds up inside the pipe stem near the mouth, blocking the bore. So a smoker might, indeed, need to break off an inch or so of the clogged tip to continue smoking.”. . . and that’s why archaeologists find so many bits of broken pipe stems in so many excavations.”

Hopefully now that old myth can be put to rest!


You can find more stories in her book DEATH BY PETTICOAT, published in June 2012 by Andrews-McMeel Press and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.