1937-02-17 — Page 11

THE CHINA MAIL, FEBRUARY 17, 1937..

The simple seeming briar is complex chemical engine which the smoker

smoker should understand

a

Peace With A Pipe

TOBACCO smoking at its finest, selection, breaking in, and are of the one with the greater amount of Unfortunately, in one sense,

in theory, is in a pipe. The a fine briar pipe.

briarwood will smoke the better, briar is a natural growth, being man who doubts this never smoked The burning tobacco in your pipe, The first, and very important rule the excrescence on the moot of the 2 real fine briar. In practice, due to incomplete combustion, pro- for selecting 3 fine briar male arborescent heath, so that though, it must be admitted that duces various chemical compounds is to pick one that has plenty briar blocks vary in their porosity, there are times when a pipe is un- which appear in the smoke. the of briar-the more

the merrier. as do, for example, oranges under questionably smoking at its very less volatile may for our purposes A simple way is to

remove the the numerous factors influencing worst, for as any addict can assure simply be called, "tars." In low mouthpiece, leaving the bowl alone, their growth. But just as a house- you nothing quite compares to concentrations these tars are sweet and to feel their weight; the heay keeper learns to detect a fine juicy pipe for moodiness and undepend- and account for that characteristic ier is the better one. A better way, orange, so the smoker can learn how ability, save perhaps a ten-cent flavour so desired by smokers. In because of its increased accuracy is to spot a porous briar. cigar lighter. Why pipes are tem- peramental to the point of sheer high concentrations, the very same to place the bowl on a balance. The

tars, depending upon degree, be writer uses his inexpensive postal story, but who would venture to Naturally a microscope tells the treachery remains to all but a very come strong, foul, bitter, and vile. scale as a practical way of arriving set up a miniature laboratory in a few fortunates a complete mystery. The ideal pipe, therefore, is one at the best possible pipe from this shop in order to buy a pipe? Others, Even old-timers commit the classic

that produces a minimum of tars standpoint. You old-timers who- error of those ancients who applied

though, in looking through micros- salve to the arrow to heal the sol- and by one or other means controls have all these years conjectured and dier's wounds, by condemning the the quantity carried in the smoke wondered why one pipe smoked bet- Copes carefully and leisurely in the laboratory have found that a grainy pipe for these vagaries when, in so that it is maintained at the low, ter than another should get quite a specimen is usually the more por- truth, it is they, alone, who are at tasty, desirable level of concentra- kick out of placing your pipes on a

ous. And grain is something you fault.

tion. The very first, and probably scale the bowls alone, of course-

If a pipe had wheels, if some most important question is: What to find that your pets, your prizes, can see with the naked eye. thing or other move, then the smoker would soon enough real- ise that it is a machine demanding

a certain amount of understanding

for its proper and efficient opera-

By Lester Hutter

the

The selection of a grainy bowl has several other advantages: It is not only apt to be more porous, but it is harder and more resistant to the burning tobacco. A grainy block tells quite a silent story of its own concerning the life of the briar bush of which it once was a part.

tion. By divorcing yourself from controls the production of these all are the heaviest. the notion that every machine must important tars?

Since any pipe produces tars Numerous laboratory tests have show motion you should be in a bet-

a fortunate circumstance or else the clearly shown that a certain definite smoke would be practically taste- ter position to appreciate that a pipe is, as any chemical engineer relation exists between the tempera- less-the control of these already

ture of the smoke, and the quantity formed tars is of great importance. for its existence in a dry, stony soil, It must have been old, struggled will assure you, a far more com- plex affair than its simple appear- of the tars: Almost invariably, the And right here is the second reason

higher the temperature. ance would indicate; a highly ingen-

and as a result contains less of the why briar is so fine a pipe material: higher the percentage of tars, and it is porous. If you look at a fine

undesirable oils and saps ious tobacco burning machine

which the result of several thousands of the lower or poorer the quality of specimen under a simple microscope are found in all briar, roots. years of evolution and modern lab- the smoke. Obviously, the con- you'll see a sponge-like profusion So far as the bowl itself is con- oratory technique. The common verse holds true. But do not clot of pores. These pores sop up the cerned, our selection, becomes a very failing of pipe smokers is that they fuse this with a pipe tasting hot tars so that fewer are carried in simple matter. No more blind pick- under-rate the complexity of a pipe, or cool, for without exception the and then as a result wonder why smoke of a pipe is lower than body through the smoke to the mouth of ing, playing hunches, being high- the smoker. Therefore, the more pressured, or taking the first: pipe they can't find proper smoking satis- temperature. It is the tars in the

porous the briar the more efficient- that strikes our fancy; instead we smoke acting upon the taste buds of

ly it absorbs the tars, and the more select the bowl that has the most the mouth that induce sensations which we describe in terms of hot

times it can be consecutively smok- briar, is the heaviest, and grain- ed without going strong.

iest. a red and cool. Just as we say Pepper is "hot," or a mint "cool" when neither a red pepper nor 2 mint will raise or lower the read- ing of any thermometer so we must clearly realise that when a smoker

faction.

Just as a man would be in error, if he condemned his fire car for missing, back-firing, and bucking, if not breaking down completely at the most inopportune time, when he never knew that an auto needed water in the radiator and oil in the motor, so the man who picks up a pipe and packs it with tobac- says. "My pipe smokes hot," he is referring to a feeling induced by co, without so much as receiving a word of instruction as to its care, trations, and accurately might say, the presence of tar in high concen- is as completely wrong when he

"My pipe smoke contains much damas his pipe for fouling, back- tar." firing, and laying down on the job.

of

There's much more to maintaining. A simple experiment should serve a car than putting gas in the tank, to convince sceptics of this. The and much more to maintaining a next time your pipe smokes "hot" pipe than tanking up with tobacco blow some of the smoke on your and puffing away.

palm, or any convenient. spot You drive 2. car and although the body, and notice that it feels you're not one, whit interested in cool, showing that the temperature the theory back of all the intricate is below body heat. parts, you have some rough idea of Briarwood is a most suitable how a motor works, what a trans- material for pipes because of mission does, and the function of a high specífic heat

Don't clutch. A certain amount of work- confuse this with high tem- ing knowledge was an absolute perature, for if anything high necessity if you were to operate specific heat" is identified with low your car successfully. But of your smoking temperature. High spe- pipe, you know very little, and that cific heat simply means that a con- little is not only vague and muddled siderable degree of heat is neces- but it is in all probability inaccur- sary to raise its temperature. Alu- abe. Therefore, a sketchy account minum, for example, has a low spe- of how a pipe works should not only cific heat, so that it is ideal for serve to satisfy sheer curiosity, pots and pans. Briar is an ideal clear up the many mysteries of why smoking vessel just because it one pipe is good and another bad, not heat up readily and thus but it should serve as a

foundation, crease the smoking temperat a basis of fact, a means for orien- its attendant rise in the percentage tation so that the smoker will be of tars, conducive to a pooter smoke. able to intelligently care for his How obvious, then, that the more pipe and eliminate all of its tantalis- briar there is to ing moodiness. In fine, it should it will "absorb provide him with some very

purer the

tive and practical pointers the Therefore, given

with

more

Distill

"D. C. L."

MALT EXTRACT

WITH

COD LIVER OIL

Is made from the fines selected Barley and malt- ed with the greatest care on the Company's own.pre- mises by the most scienti« fic methods of manufac- ture.

THE DISTILLERS COMPANY LTD.

EDINBURGH.

Price: Fer 2 lb. Jar-$2.00 Per 1 lb. Jar-$1.10

Ohtainable at all dispensaries & drug stores.

SOLE AGENTS:

GANDE, PRICE & CO. LID.

St. George's Tel 20135

Ice House Stre

HONG KONES