HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1955-09-29, Page 7Pipe Smoking
Through The Ages
Smoking is a far more ancient
custom than is' generally sup-
posed. Its origin has been traced
back to the religious ceremonies
of priests in districts of countries
we now know as Mexico and
Central America. Stone effigies
of priests of the Mayas, whose
civilization began before the
birth of Christ, show them en-
gaged in the act of ceremonial
smoking. They used a form of
pipe and blew the tobacco smoke
towards the sun and the four
points of the compass.
The practice spread but did
not reach England until some
time in the 16th century.
Sir Walter Raleigh is popular-
Iy supposed to have been the
first pipe smoker in England
and it is said that Ralph Lane,
Governor of Virginia, presented
him with an Indian pipe in 1586.
lit is certain however that pipes
were smoked in England before
this, for William Harrison in
1573 writes in his "Chronologie"
of 'the taking in of the smoke
of the Indian herb' and goes on
to describe how it is taken —
'by an instrument formed like
a little ladell'. This obviously
describes a form of pipe with a
narrow bowl.
Although not the first to
smoke a pipe, Raleigh, by his
example, did much to popular-
ize the art among men of fa-
shion who were soon carrying
the necessary ponderous equip-
ment. A good deal of fun was
made of the smoker's apparatus
and a contemporary pamphlet-
eer writes: 'I beheld pipes in his
pocket: now he draws forth his
tinder box and his touchwood
and falleth into his tacklings:
Sure his throate is afire, the
smoake fiyeth so fast from his
mouth,'
It is interesting to note that
the word 'pipe' is derived from
the Latin 'pipare' meaning 'to
chirp' and was applied first to
a wind instrument. One James
Cartier concluded an explora-
tion of the St. Lawrence estu-
00t,. ary in 1536. In his description
of the voyage, he mentions that
the Indians carried a skin bag
suspended from their necks
which contained some dried herb
and a piece of stone or wood
'like a pipe'. It would seem,
therefore, that Cartier's descrip-
tion was the nearest he could
give to this tubular piece of
wood or atone which resembled
the musical instrument.
Raleigh's pipe were made of
clay and as the demand grew,
manufacture on a large scale
was started in this country.
There are references to pipes
made of silver and of walnut
shells with a straw but these
were possibly made in more
remote parts of England where
AV- the right clay was not readily
available.
The growing popularity of the
clay is illustrated by the report
of a German traveller, Paul
Hentzner, of a visit to the Bear
Garden in Southwark in 1598.
He says: 'At these spectacles
and elsewhere the English are
constantly smoking tobacco, for
which purpose they have pipes
made of clay. They draw the
smoke into their mouths and
puff it out again through their
nostrils like funnels with much
of phlegm and defluxtion from
the head.'
Nevertheless there was a good
deal of opposition to the habit
which was condemned as 'loath-
some to the eye and harmfull to
the brain'.
Towards the end of the 19th
century, English firms started to
manufacture briar pipes in that
country and London became the
centre. French workmen who
bad experience of the 'new' ma-
terial were brought over to teach
the craft. They found the British
very willing to learn. They soon
became experts and the words
'London Made' became famous
throughout the world as a sym-
bol of pipe perfection.
A high degree of skill is re-
quired in the making of a pipe,
where each bowl is turned indi-
vidually. ,
The briar root, often weighing
ten pounds or more, is first dug
up and then sawn into blocks,
the trade name for which is
'Ebaucbons.' These blocks are
then boiled for twenty-four.
hours to remove all traces of
sap and so prevent cracking.
After seasoning the blocks are
roughly shaped and passed to the
craftsman who turns the bowl.
This latter is a highly skilled
operation as is also the shaping
of the stem, which may be
round, square or flat. The"'bowls
are next sandpapered and are
ready for selecting and grading.
After grading, the rich colour
of the briar is brought out by
fine oils and the hidden beauties
of the grain disclosed. Finally
the bowl is polished on a lathe
head running at high speed. In
a11, more than thirty skilled op-
erations are necessary to produce
a pipe,,.
The Amazing Jake Englehart
By IAN SCLAND.LRS
In 1905, it hen Sir James
Whitney became premier of
Ontario, he d'scovered that
the Temiskanling and Nor-
thern Ontario Railway, a
provincial government ven-
ture which had been launch-
ed three years earlier, was in•
a sorry mess, He needed the
ablest man he could find to
unravel its tangled affairs,
complete its construction,
and put it on a paying basis.
He appealed to Jacob Lewis
Englehart, of the little south-
western Ontario town of
Petrolia, a founder and vice-
president of Imperial Oil
Limited.
"Jake," he is reported to
have said, "will you come to
the rescue and run the T.
and N.O. for me?"
"I'll be happy to," Engle-
hart is reported to have re-
plied. "What is it?"
The thinning number of
men who remember the
amazing Jake Englehart still
tell this apocryphal story be-
cause it flashes a light on
three facets of his complex
character: he was always
willing to help a friend, he
reached decisions instantly,
and he was not afraid to
tackle anything. These traits
might have ruined an ordin-
ary individual. But Engle-
hart seldom failed at what
he tried.
When he established his
own oil company, as a raw-
boned youth of 19, older men
laughed at him and predicted
his bankruptcy. They stop-
ped laughing when within
a few years he had built, and
successfully operated, the
biggest refinery in Canada.
At the age of 33, he was
the organizing genius behind
the move that brought 16
leading oil men, business-
men and political figures to-
gether to form Imperial Oil.
* f *
The biographical volume
says he was born in Cleve-
land, 0., on November 2,
1847, a son of S. John Joel
and Hannah E. Englehart,
and that in 1866 he formed
J. L. Englehart and Coin-
pany, "refining, producing
and exporting Canadian pe-
troleum," with a refinery at
London, Ont., and an office
at New York. The volume
does not say what his father
did or how Jacob Lewis En-
glehart, at 19, had acquired
enough cash to come to Can-
ada and set himself up in
business. But the American
Civil War, which in 1866 was
just newly over, had given
many Northerners opportun-
ities to 'make Morley. Engle-
hart may have been one of
them. Or he may have been
backed by his father. In
either case he required a
relatively modest amount of
capital. Refineries, in 1866,
were cheap, ' tiny contrap-
tions which looked like over-
grown ink bottles. The lar-
gest of them had a capacity
of only a few hundred bar-
rels a weep. •
They were risky invest-.
cents because many of then
blew up. But those which
didn't explode yielded high
profits, for throughout North
America people who had al-
ways burned a mixture of
whale oil and lftrd in their
lamps were clamoring for
the wonderful new lighting
fluid, kerosene, developed by
Dr: Abraham Gesner of
Nova Scotia. Southwestern
Ontario was then one of the
chief sources of the petroleum
from which kerosene was
distilled. That's how the in-
dustry was when Engiehart
came to Canada,
While his first refinery was
being erected in London,
Englehart traveled through
the ail fields persuading small
producers, mostly farmers
with oil wells in their pas-
tures, to let him hanclle their
output and sell it through
his New York office. Before
his refinery started operating
in the fall of 1866 he had an
assured supply of crude pe-
troleum to feed it.
He had this in spite of
competitors who followed
him around spreading word
that he was "wet behind the
ears," too young to be trus-
ted, and, what was worse, a
city slicker from the States.
Ironically, a practical joke
and his one appearance in
police court enhanced his
popularity with the produc-
ers in the back concessions
and defeated the efforts of
his competitors.
Englehart, at the time, of
this affair, was a guest at the
Tecumseh House in London
and one evening as he was
going out for a stroll he no-
ticed two wooden spigots
from beer kegs on the hotel
proprietor's desk.
On the street a couple of
minutes later he encountered
the head of the game protec-
tive association, and, on an
impulse, informed him • grav-
ely that he suspected the
proprietor of the Tecumseh
of breaking the game laws,
„ as he had seen two wood-
cocks in his office. Without
checking up, the president of
the game association rushed
off and laid a charge against
the hotelkeeper. Englehart
was summoned as a witness.
Called to the stand he con-
firmed his statement that he
had seen two woodcocks on
the proprietor's desk.
"I have them here," he
said, producing the spigots
from his coat pocket.
Everybody roared with
mirth—except the president
of the game association. And
in the back concessions,
where a good joke was ap-
pir&rated and hunting .re-
strictions were disliked, the
incident cemented Engle -
hart's prestige and his repu-
tation of being a "real man
even if he looks like a school-
boy."
Englehart was to . rock
London on two. other occa-
sions—but not with laugh-
ter. On April 9, 1869, his re-
finery exploded with what
newspapers termed "a re-
port that rocked the town."
But, if the blast shook win-
dows, it injured nobody and
the damage was estimated
at only $2,000. Less than
seven weeks later it was rip-
ped by another explosion.
This one caused $6,000 dam-
age.
One paper that reported
the explosions was the Wy-
oming News Letter, publish-
ed at Wyoming, in the heart
of the Ontario oil fields. It
was in this same year, 1869,
that the News Letter ran an
editorial advocating a new
oil company "with a capital
of $500,000" to enable Can-
ada to carry on "an export
trade of larger proportions."
Englehart never forgot this
editorial and 11 years later
when Imperial Oil was born
it had precisely what the
News. Letter recommended
—a Capital of $500,000.
But other things were to
happen first. Englehart re-
built and expanded his Lon-
don refinery and in 1870 got
an order from Germany for
a $30,000 shipment of hero-
sene. When the shipment
reached its destination it
was rejected on the grounds
that it was not up to speci-
fications.. The cost of bring-
ing the kerosene back to
London, refining it again,
and returning it to Germany,
would have been ruinous.
Englehart Diet the emergency
by sending refining equip-
ment to Germany and re-
processing the kerosene there
--a procedure which reduced
his losses.
Meanwhile he had been ac-
quiring oil wells at Petrolia,
where drillers were striking
oil wherever they sank a hole
and where oil even flowed
down the deep rots of the
main street. And—perhaps
convinced by the German
experience—be decided that
in addition to his London
refinery he needed a second
refinery close to the oil wells.
So, in the muddy, booming,
excited little town of Petro-
lia„ he bought a refinery and
enlarged it until it was re
puted to be the biggest and
most efficient in the world.
Ile also laid a system of
pipes through which oil could
be pumped right into his
plant.
4 b
"IIe was a nice man, says
Stothers, "but all business-
all business, no fooling. Used
to bach here one time; him
and Ed Kirby, the first may-
or, bached together in a
frame house."
He was backing with Ed
Rirby in 1880 when his
dream came true—the dream
of an oil company with fin-
ancial resources large enough
to improve petroleum pro-
ducts, create new outlets for
them, place the Ontario oil
fields on a solid foundation
and meet the competition
from American fields. After
months of negotiations in
which he played a leading
role, Imperial Oil Company
Limited—now Imperial Oil
Limited—was formed. Engle-
hart became vice-president
and assumed an active role
in managing the new corpor-
ation.
The new company absor-
bed refineries belonging to
some of the 16 original share-
holders, and used the equip-
ment to enlarge Englehart's
London and Petrolia plants.
These became the first I1n-
perial refineries.
Englehart was at the
plants six days a week from
morning till night. Refining
was still a hazardous trade.
Englehart instituted a sys-
tem by which funds were set
aside to compensate men in-
jured at work, but he also
reduced hazards and preach-
ed safety rules.
Once he saw a man run-
ning through a dangerous
part of the refinery. He fired
him, but re -hired him two
weeks later and from his own
pocket paidAim the wages
be had lost.
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Up north he pushed a rail-
road into almost virgin bush
country! Englehart spent a
lot of time there after he ac-
cepted the chairmanship of
the T. and N,O. from Sir
James Whitney. It was a
new adventure fora man
who was a pioneer at heart.
The salary that went with
the job, which was supposed
to be very much a part-time
job, was $5,000 a year. Eng-
lehart made the job very
nearly a full-time job and
gave his salary away to north
country settlers who needed
help.
-Imperial Oil Review.
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Dare -Devil Stuff
An anonymous young man is
planning to defy death this
autumn by plunging over Nia-
gara Falls enclosed in a steel
barrel specially made for the
purpose. He won't disclose the
date of his proposed exploit in
case it is stopped by the police,
Dare -devil Bobby Leach, one
of the few men to survive
"shooting" the roaring, foaming
Falls, would have laughed at
this ban on making the 168 -ft.
drop over the brink. No police
restrained him when, watched
by 300,000 people, he strapped
himself in a cigar -shaped steel
barrel which had been carefully
cushioned inside and took the
plunge on July 26th, 1911.
When the barrel dropped it
was at once caught by a giant
wave which hurled it twenty feet
into the air. It was then held for
eighteen minutes in the whirl-
pool below the Falls. Between
the time he went over the ra-
pids until he was hauled un-
conscious out of the water,
thirty -.nine minutes elapsed. His
knee -caps were found to be bro-
ken.
Leach's hair grew white from
his terrible experience, but he
little dreamed of the strange end
which fate had in store for him.
At the age of fifty-eight he
broke his leg when he slipped
on an orange peel in an Auck-
land street. The leg was ampu-
tated. He died some time after
the operation.
An attempt to "shoot" Horse-
shoe Falls, Niagara, in an oak
barrel killed George Stathakis
in 1930, the barrel being smash-
ed on the rocks at the cataract's
foot. The man's body was im-
prisoned in the wreckage in a
cavern behind the thundering
torrent of waters and days pass-
ed before it emerged.
A friend was so confident that
the attempt would fail that he
summoned an undertaker some
hours before the barrel went
over.
A Bristol barber wore a pad-
ded suit in an ill. -fated attempt
to go over the Hbrseshoe Falls
in a wooden barrel strengthen-
ed by iron bands thirty-five
years ago. An iron plate weigh-
ing one hundred -weight and
sixty pounds of lead were used
to keep the barrel vertical.
It was dashed to pieces at the
foot of the Falls. The intrepid
barber, who was killed, had thus
made his last gamble in a life
of adventure, for he used to
boast that he had shaved cus-
tomers in a lion's den and had
an apple cut in two on his throat
with a sword.
More Forest Fires were re-
ported by an alert public last
year, than by any single govern-
ment. detection agency.
ISSUE 39 — 1955
If You're TIRED
ALL THE TIME
E
Everybody gels a bit run-down now and
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