TOBACCO.PIPES are made of a fine grained plastic white clay, to which they have given the name. It is worked with water into a thin paste, which is allowed to settle in pits, or it may be passed through a sieve, to separate the silicious or other stony impurities; the water is afterwards evaporated till the clay becomes of a doughy consistence, when it must be well kneaded to make it uniform. The clay is distinguished by its perfectly white color, and its great adhesion to the tongue after it is baked ; owing to the large proportion of alumina which it con tains.
A child fashions a ball of clay from the heap, rolls it out into a slender cylinder upon a plank, with the palms of his hands, in order to form the stem of the pipe. lie sticks a small lump to the end of the cylinder for forming the bowl ; which having done, he lays the pieces aside for a day or two, to get more con sistence. In proportion as he makes these rough figures, he arranges them by dozens on a board, and hands them to the pipemaker.
The pipe is finished by means of a folding brass or iron mould, channelled inside of the shape of the stem and the bowl, and capable of being opened at the two ends. It is formed of two pieces, each hollowed out like a half-pipe, cut as it were lengthwise ; and these two jaws, when brought together, constitute the exact space for making one pipe. There are small pills in one side of the mould, corresponding to the holes in the other, which serve as guides for applying the two together with precision.
The workman takes a long iron wire, with its end oiled, and pushes it through the soft clay in the direction of the stem, to form the bore, and he directs the wire by feeling with his left hand the progress of its point. He lays the pipe in the groove of one of the jaws of the mould, with the wire sticking in it ; applies the other jaw, brings them smartly together, and unites them by a clamp or vice, which produces the external form. A laver is now brought down, which presses an oiled stopper into the bowl of the pipe, while it is in the mould, forcing it sufficiently down to form the cavity ; the wire being meanwhile thrust backwards and forwards so as to pierce the tube completely through. The wire is now withdrawn, the jaws of the mould open ed, the pipe taken out, and the redun dant clay removed with a knife. After drying for a day or two, the pipes are scraped, polished with a piece of hard wood, and the sterns being bent into the desired form, they are carried to the baking kiln. The pipes are then put in the furnace or kiln and baked, removed to receive the glaze (in some instances), and again returned to the furnace till the glaze has melted over the bowl.