145. Andy Wike’s Guide to the System Pipe
Back in June, Andy Wike at Smokingpipes blogged on the System pipe, reflecting on one of my favorite chapters in The Peterson Pipe: The Story of Kapp & Peterson, assimilating it and in a few instances making things clearer than I did. It gives me great pleasure to repost it here in anticipation of Peterson System Day--which is next Tuesday, September 3rd. I couldn't help but add a few bracketed comments. :) The oldest continuously operating pipe factory in the world, Peterson produces some of the most recognizable and iconic pipes on the market. They've been featured in exhibitions, films, and television shows for the past century; many famous writers, artists, and inventors smoked a Peterson pipe, including Mark Twain, whose love for his System pipe is still perhaps unparalleled to this day. Even those uninvolved in our hobby likely think of a Peterson when asked to imagine a pipe. Yet few recognize that the marque's iconic aesthetic is largely informed by the functional design of their most important contribution to the history of pipemaking: the System Pipe. Love it or hate it, the System isn't just a novelty offered by Peterson; it is the Peterson pipe. Its engineering and overall design are intertwined with the marque's foundation and raison d'être. They're the invisible source behind Peterson's unique Irish aesthetic — its muscular shank and transition, tubular profile, and generous bend. The marque's overall shaping style has a distinctly antique form because it has remained largely unchanged for over 120 years. Despite the System's historical significance and popularity, many remain unimpressed by Peterson's most important innovation. Until recently, I counted myself among the naysayers. It wasn't until I read Mark Irwin's and Gary Malmberg's extraordinary new book, The Peterson Pipe: The Story of Kapp & Peterson, that my own thoughts on the System pipe evolved. As it turns out, I'd either taken for granted or misunderstood nearly everything about the System's design and intention. It was clear that a broader understanding of the System pipe, from its history and composition, to its functionality and maintenance, is essential to achieving the design's full capabilities. [Enlarge the photo: the little guy on the left is Alfred Henry Kapp! —M.I.] Charles Peterson & the System Pipe's Practical Origins To understand Peterson's System and how it was intended to work, we need some context, in particular regarding its creator, Charles Peterson. In 1874, Frederick Kapp opened a tobacco and pipe shop in Dublin; within a year a young Latvian woodworker named Charles Peterson was employed there. During his first years with the Kapps, Peterson made and repaired briar and meerschaum pipes, thinking critically about how to improve their design. In 1890, after 15 years of handling and repairing multitudes of pipes, Charles secured a patent in his own name, titled "A certain new and useful improvement in Tobacco-Pipes," introducing a unique system comprised of a higher draft hole and a moisture reservoir bored into the shank and transition of a briar pipe. Over…