Gutta Percha and Redmanol: The Tobacco Pipe Industry’s Odd Couple
Exclusive to pipedia.org
Introduction
Why the odd couple? Briar, clay, meerschaum, and corn cob pipes are still being produced. Two pipe mediums that had the shortest life span in the industry were gutta percha in the 19th and into the early 20th century, and Redmanol in the 20th century. And just like General MacArthur’s “Old soldiers smokers never die, they just fade away.” Today, both versatile substances may be in use somewhere, but certainly not in the pipe business. Was it their toxicity, taste, tactility, or something else? Here’s the who, what, when, and where. After reading this article, you’ll understand the why.
Gutta Percha
Gutta percha—a purified, coagulated latex from Southeast Asian trees—and Redmanol—a hard, durable, synthetic plastic—were not just materials that accessorized a pipe. They were complementary substances for a pipe and as pipe components. Both were used extensively by manufacturers on both sides of the Atlantic, quite often in combination with a briar bowl. Pipes using either or both materials were relatively popular for, perhaps, 50 or so years.
What is gutta percha? (In Malay, getah means latex, and percha means scrap or rag.) It’s a form of purified, coagulated latex from the Malaysian tree of the Sapotaceae family of trees. When cooled after heating, it solidifies. The first European to study this material was John Tradescant, who collected it in the Far East in 1656. He named this material Mazer wood. It was later discovered by William Montgomerie, a British surgeon, in 1822, while assigned to the East India Company. He was the first to appreciate the potential of this material in medicine, and he was awarded the gold medal by the Royal Society of Arts. During the second half of the 19th century, it was used for many domestic and industrial purposes. In 1839, Charles Goodyear accidentally discovered Vulcanite—a hardened rubber using sulpher—and he and Nathan Hayward received a patent for it in 1844. The difference between the two? Some had suggested a taste test. If the item tastes salty, it’s gutta percha; if not, it’s vulcanite.
According to its history, mixed with other materials, it began more than 200 years ago as a filling of the root canal, the empty space after it had undergone endodontic therapy. Natural rubber is soft and elastic, whereas gutta percha is non-elastic, hence, a material that could be molded, cast, and used in several industries. How and when the pipe industry here or in England adopted it is not well documented. But before long, gutta percha was being used to make tobacco pouches, tobacco pipes, and cigar and cigarette holders. If you desire a deep dig, read Steve Laug’s lengthy discourse: “What is the unique material that forms a Gutta Percha Pipe” (rebornpipes.com). And for a deeper dig, read the 200-page India Rubber and Gutta Percha: Being A Compilation of all The Available Information Respecting The Trees Yielding These Articles of Commerce and Cultivation; With Notes on The Preparation and Manufacture of Rubber and Gutta Percha (1882).
Tallis’s History and Description of the Crystal Palace, and the Exhibition of the World’s Industry in 1851, contains a four-page article: “Manufacture From Gutta Percha,” and this is the only mention: “Latterly pumps for hydrochloric acids have been made of it, pipes for conveying this acid, bottles in which to send it away.” This indicates that gutta percha for tobacco pipes was not yet in consideration. Within a few years, however, this material would be adopted for use by the pipe industry. “During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, corn cob, wood, metal, gutta percha, and clay pipes were available to suit every economic class” (Kathleen A. Parker and Jacqueline L. Hernigle, Portici, 1990, 108) is not chronologically accurate for the corn cob and for gutta percha.
Gutta percha pipe stems or mouthpieces is not mentioned in Benjamin L. Green, Discovery, History & Manifold Uses of Gutta Percha (1851), nor in Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Caoutchouc and Gutta Percha (1852). However, a few years later, this may have been the first application for a British patent that proposed gutta percha as a pipe mouthpiece: “A.D. 1860, August 22.— No. 2020, Joseph Jobin and Auguste Boll, Improvements in cigarettes and mouth-pieces”: “The mouth-piece is removable, made of amber, glass, or other material, and has at the end ‘a tip of vulcanized India-rubber or gutta ‘percha’” (Patents for Inventions. Abridgments of Specifications Relating to The Preparation And Use of Tobacco. A.D. 1721-1866, 1870, 99).
And in 1868, another British patent application was submitted: “A coil or coils of gutta percha, caoutchouc, or other flexible tubing, a part of such tubing forming the mouthpiece, may be attached to the receptacle [the bowl] above mentioned, the length of the coils serving to cool the smoke as it passes through them, and the gutta percha or other flexible mouthpiece saving the teeth from the wear occasioned by constantly gripping hard substances, such as amber, bone, &c. as at present” (A.D. 1868, 20th October, No 3207, Tobacco Pipes. “Lorkin’s Improvements in Pipes for Smoking Tobacco,” 2).
“Pipes are made of many different shapes and a large variety of materials are employed. Those with clay bowls and reed stems were commonly used by the American colonists; afterwards the corncob bowl superseded it in favor. The most expensive pipes are those made of carved meerschaum and with amber stems and mouthpieces. Bowls of brier root, with stems and mouthpieces either of amber or its imitation, celluloid, horn or gutta-percha, form most of the pipes used by smokers in England and in the United States” (“Pipe,” The Source Book, Volume V, 1924, 2263).
Here’s one man’s experience. “Perhaps the best is to have three or four pipes, long ones, and to take a syringe—gutta percha—(there are small ones sold at about 1s.) and, putting the tube of the pipe into a glass of water, forcibly send the water down; this effectually cleans it, and gives a cool tube to the mouth of the smoker” (A Country Clergyman, The Disease of Sleeplessness, 1877, 11). In the 1800s, gutta percha was the material of choice to reinforce rugby boots.
Looking back, the mouthpiece material of most mid- to late-19th century pipes was a thorny issue. A short mouthpiece was considered injurious to one’s health. The German cherry wood mouthpiece was considered the best for comfort and in order of preference, vulcanite or hard rubber; bamboo or reed was durable, but inferior; amber and tortoiseshell were admirable, but brittle; and buffalo horn was almost extinct. Others were goose and quills, antler, ambroid, celluloid, xylonite (the British version of celluloid), fig, and elder. Gutta percha and ebonite spoiled the flavor of the tobacco, and celluloid was considered a dangerous substance. Some smokers were able to discern the difference between a vulcanite mouthpiece cut from a sheet of India rubber and a mouthpiece that was molded. The criticism was that the molded variety was inferior, because it felt rough to the lips; the sheet version felt somewhat like amber. “The best pipe is made of briar root, with a short and straight, or very slightly curved stem. The mouthpiece should be amber or ebonized gutta percha” (Tid Bits, “Some Hints as to the Way to Get the Most Enjoyment Out of Tobacco,” The Tobacco Worker, Vol. 13, May, 1909, 12). Quite coincidentally, new materials were being introduced as more practical mouthpieces. One of those practical mouthpieces was Redmanol, the subject of the second half of this story.
The Annual Chemical Directory of the United States (third edition, 1920) lists the companies that were actively engaged in the manufacture of gutta percha and Redmanol: Redmanol Chemical Products Company, Chicago and New York City, and the Gutta Percha & Rubber Manufacturing Company of New York City. By the time of the sixth edition (2001) of the Columbia Encyclopedia, this is the only entry: “Historical Uses of Gutta-Percha”: “Gutta-percha is an excellent nonconductor and is often employed in insulating marine and underground cables. It is also used for golf-ball coverings, surgical appliances, and adhesives.” Gutta percha pipes had become a distant memory.
Gallery of Gutta percha Pipes
Stamped “PAT. APP. FOR,” and “Bob’er,” courtesy, worthpoint.com
KBB, courtesy, riverjunction.com
Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, courtesy, heritageauctions.com
General George Washington, courtesy, uniondb.com
Courtesy, ebay.com
Courtesy, pinterest.com
KB&B, courtesy, princessattic (953)
Courtesy, catawiki.com
Courtesy, etsy.com
Courtesy, Amsterdam Pipe Museum www.pipemuseum.nl
Courtesy, Amsterdam Pipe Museum www.pipemuseum.nl
Courtesy, Amsterdam Pipe Museum www.pipemuseum.nl
Boer War pipe, often called a “Naughty Nellie,” courtesy, sworders.com
7th Ohio Cavalry, American Civil War, courtesy, uniondb.com
Kaufman Brothers and Bondy, courtesy, goantiques.com
Courtesy, invaluable.com
Courtesy, worthpoint.com
Courtesy, ebay.com
Courtesy, ebay.com
Courtesy, jamesmountainantiques (18921)
U.S.S. Maine, courtesy, ima-usa.com
The S.S. Meidling, courtesy, worthpoint.com
Dr. Grabow, courtesy, andythebeagle, tapatalk.com
Courtesy, rebornpipes.com
BBB pipe in fitted case, courtesy of dadspipes.com
Courtesy, worthpoint.com
One of the very few 20th-century gutta-percha figural pipes is this one made for the Darkie brand of toothpaste, launched in Shanghai in 1933. It was supposed to look like minstrel singer, Al Jolson. After much criticism and complaint, the brand name was changed to Darlie in 1985, but the Chinese name remains: “Black Person Fluoride Toothpaste.”
Eventually, hard rubber, vulcanite and ebonite replaced gutta percha as stem material. But there’s still interest in this material. The feature article of the May 30, 2016 issue of Time Magazine was “Gutta-Percha: The Forgotten Material That Changed The World.” Ben Wilson, “Without this, Technological Progress in 19th Century Would Have Been Much Slower” (historynewsnetwork.org), May 22, 2016. On January 22, 2021, Springer Link published an historical online article, “Discovery and rediscovery of gutta percha, a natural thermoplastic” (link.springer.com). And “The Great Transatlantic Cable. Gutta-percha” is on pbs.org. Of course, these articles are about the submarine telegraph laid across the English Channel in September 1851 using gutta percha as an insulator for copper electric wire.
Redmanol
The then-popular amber (and amberoid, pressed and fused amber pieces) mouthpieces were costly imports. There was an urgent need to find satisfactory and less-costly substitutes. The first was Bakelite, patented by Belgian-born scientist Dr. Leo Hendrik Baekeland in New York in 1907. It was the first truly synthetic, thermoplastic plastic, meaning that it could not be melted or changed by heating once formed. Advertised as “man-made amber,” it became an ideal substitute for amber as a mouthpiece and as a cigar and cigarette holder. It was considered “…the best substance known to science for pipe stems.” As a material, it began with an innovation known as the Bakelite socket with three parts—a briar bowl screwed into a Bakelite socket and a Bakelite mouthpiece modeled after the amber socket pipe—and also as mouthpieces as early as 1912. Baekeland knew that he’d created a versatile material with broad appeal. Indeed, Bakelite proved suitable for a wide range of industrial and commercial applications. Touted as “the material of a thousand uses,” his patent specifications covering the chemical reaction and its uses were regarded by many as the birth of the modern plastics industry. Bakelite became a household name and helped usher in the age of plastics.
Then came Redmanol. In 1913, Lawrence V. Redman established the Redmanol Chemical Products Company in Chicago to produce a plastic, similar to Bakelite, made from the action of formin on carbolic acid. “Redmanol. Perfect molding material. Redmanol Chemical Products Co., 644 West 22nd Street, Chicago, was initially advertised as a molding compound to replace metal, rubber, fibre, wood, porcelain and other plastic materials. … suited to make pencils, buttons, pool triangles, acid containers” (Factory. The Magazine of Management, July 1923, 393). “’Redmanol,’” the new substitute for amber, a Chicago invention, seems to be making a hit from the start” (“Chicago Factories Await Readjustment,” United States Tobacco Journal, November 14, 1914, 13).
What is Redmanol? Here are a couple definitions, the first from the Redmanol company: “REDMANOL. The Material of a thousand uses. REDMANOL is sold as TRANSPARENT REDMANOL which has every physical property of Baltic amber, except that REDMANOL is more lustrous and has perfect transparency. The transparent REDMANOL is used for dental and surgical instruments and electrical insulation and is the material which has largely replaced amber in smokers’ supplies” (Directory. Chicago Section. American Chemical Society, 1911).
The second is from a tobacco industry leader. “Redmanol is a secret compound, the result of years of experiment and research work to find a substance for cigar and cigarette holders and stems which would possess the beauty of natural amber but none of the frailties. It is, in fact a man-made amber, being chemically known as synthetic amber, and has proved so admirable a substitute for natural amber that it is doubtful that the later [sic] will ever again be used to the extent it formerly was. …All in all Redmanol makes use of the most perfect and satisfactory mouth-pieces yet devised. Our customers are evidently aware of this fact as is amply demonstrated by the enormous increase in sales in our stores this year of Redmanol cigar and cigarette tubes” (“Pipe Points Worth Remembering. Redmanol,” The United Shield, November, 1919, 13).
And the third is from a journal article. “Redmanol, a similar substance [to Bakelite], is made using formin instead of formaldehyde, and on melting this with phenol it gives a clear, amber-colored, transparent substance that is plastic and can be bent and worked into shape. On further heating it becomes hard and insoluble and similar to bakelite except for its color and transparency. Redmanol, by virtue of its resemblance to real amber and its many desirable properties of insolubility, non-inflammability, the ability to mold easily before hardening, and its imperviousness to corrosive substances, is used for making hundreds of useful and ornamental objects, some of the most familiar being pipe stems, cigar and cigarette holders, and knife handles” (J. Maple Wilson, Jr., “The Relation of Chemistry to the Home,” Journal of Chemical Education, Vol. 3, No. 6, June, 1926, 670).
The U. S. pipe industry adopted Redmanol as early as 1919. At least five manufacturers used Redmanol mouthpieces: Reiss Bros. & Co. and M. Linkman & Co., Chicago, S. M. Frank & Co. and L. & H. Stern, Inc., New York, and the Premier Briar Pipe Co., Union, New Jersey. For a number of years, Redmanol Chemical Products Company maintained a facility at 68 Victoria Street, London, SW1. And there’s some evidence that Peterson had joined Redmanol stems to several of its briar pipe models.
“Redmanol pipes, mouthpieces, cigar and cigarette holders, possess all the beauties of natural amber and none of amber’s weakness” reads a Redmanol ad in the United States Tobacco Journal, September 13, 1919. Another ad was for a cased set: two pipes, one curved, one straight, both with removable briar bowls, both with Redmanol transparent stems and bottoms (The Saturday Evening Post, December 13, 1919). “A new brand of pipes being manufactured by L. & H. Stern, to be known as the ‘Redmanol’, is a novel one, in that the entire pipe, outside of the briar bowl, is made of ‘Redmanol,’ which has all the qualities of amber” (“Redmanol” Pipe New Offering of L. & H. Stern,” United States Tobacco Journal, Vol. 91, March 15, 1919). In another periodical is this charming Madison-Avenue enticement: “There is a Redmanol pipe and holder that goes well anywhere. To match the purse of our host of panelled [sic] room, or the means of the humblest toiler, there is some one shape and style that careful craftsmen cut by hand” (Outers’—Recreation, Vol. LXII, January, 1920). An ad from The Purdue Exponent, April 23, 1921: “The Perfect Mouthpiece. Men who know pipe satisfaction will tell you that they prefer REDMANOL to any other mouthpiece because it has just the right feel on the teeth. REDMANOL is as transparent and beautiful as amber; but stronger. Modern science has made it tasteless and odorless. Whether you are buying a cigarette holder, a cigar holder, or a “jimmy” pipe, ask your dealer to show you one with a REDMANOL bit. All Shapes—All Prices If your local dealer doesn't carry REDMANOL pipes and holders send us his name and address. Redmanol Chemical Products Co. 654 West 22nd Street, Chicago.” Often, its early ads stated: “Redmanol mouthpieces are hand-cut, and never lose their amber color or their sparkle.”
In 1922, the General Bakelite Company, New York City, the Condensite Company, Bloomfield, New Jersey, and Redmanol merged to become the Bakelite Corporation. “Redmanol is not exactly a pipe brand but the name of a synthetic material, a phenol-formaldehyde resin very close to Bakelite, first developed in 1907 by Leo Hendrik Baekeland. Redmanol and also Condensite were competitors to Bakelite. The courts found that Redmanol and Condensite both infringed on Baekeland’s patents, and in 1922 the three companies merged as the ‘Bakelite Company” (pipephil.eu). From a 1923 ad in The Saturday Evening Post from the Bakelite Corporation: “Bakelite,” “Condensite,” “Redmanol” are the well-known trade names for the three varieties of “The Material of a Thousand Uses.” “Bakelite, Condensite, and Redmanol are the trade-mark names for the phenolic resin materials manufactured by the several Divisions of the Bakelite Corporation.”
And that’s when, as I see it, Redmanol—a translucent material—continued to manufacture its product, pretty much unchanged, but the marketing and promotion language for it and Bakelite became cloudy. According to Steve Laug who has studied this much more than I:
“Original Bakelite, whatever the color, still looked like plastic, while deep red, translucent Redmanol was so close to amber of the same color that it often requires an expert to differentiate the two. Bakelite was produced in at least these colors: golden yellow, ruby, emerald, amethyst, and jet. Real amber comes in several colors: non-reflective deep-cherry red, golden, and yellow. Most often, Redmanol was a clear or translucent red. Deep-red Redmanol was so close to amber of the same color that it often required an expert to differentiate the two. It certainly didn’t help when ads for Redmanol products stated: “Odorless, taste-less, unbreakable, non-inflammable, and retains its amber color.”
As the Bakelite/Redmanol Corporation, ads began to use language that may have confused the pipe buyer. One ad reads: “You will be proud of a pipe or holder with a handsome mouthpiece of genuine Bakelite or Redmanol. In clear or in clouded golden yellows, this material is equal to amber in beauty, though far stronger. …In novelty colors, such as jet, emerald, amethyst, ruby and others, it makes very attractive and serviceable holders” (Vanity Fair, November 1923). The following ad—and many others—conflates the ruby Redmanol with an assortment of Bakelite colors. “Redmanol is also a phenolic resin of dark brown color working somewhat like bakelite” (Radio News for November, 1923).
Redmanol had many other uses: automotive, electrical, mechanical, radio, jewelry, and novelties. There was “The Redmanol is a Real Pencil” that “has the most perfect balance, artistic appearance, and the most satisfying ‘feel’ found in any pencil of any kind or description” (Pennsylvania School Journal, October, 1923). And the Realite Pencil whose barrel is “…not made of wood, or metal, but made of Redmanol. Redmanol is a wonderful composition which is as light as wood, and more beautiful than hard rubber” (City Editor and Reporter, March 1922).
And if there wasn’t already enough confusion in branding, “The others (resinous bodies resulting from the condensation of phenols and aldehydes), although resulting from the same raw materials, are in their final stage infusible, and are known under various trade names as Bakelite, Resinit, Redmanol, Sipilite, Condensite, Amberite, Faturan, Formit, Phenoform, Nuloid, Amberdeen, etc., etc.” (Howard L. Bender, Phenol Resins and Resinoids, dissertation, 1925). I’ll add that amberoid is considered a synthetic, but it’s pressed amber, and Ambroid was a cement developed initially as a canoe repair glue, later as a cement for the aircraft industry. (Frankly, it would have been a lot easier for me to explain the difference between the two antioxidant serums, Bakuchiol and Retinol.)
Returning to pipes, as you’ll see, the American gang’s all here … the usual suspects! New York’s William Demuth, KB&B, Carl Stehr, C.P.F., and L&H Stern, Chicago’s M. Linkman & Company, and others got on the Redmanol bandwagon.
Gallery of Redmonol Pipes
Courtesy, Racine & Laramie Tobacconist via pipedia.org
Courtesy, worthpoint.com
Courtesy, bradfordsauction.com
Courtesy, ebay.co.uk
Courtesy, L.H.S., mbsdpipes.com
CPF meerschaum, courtesy, mbsdpipes.com
Courtesy, reddit.com
Courtesy, worthpoint.com
Courtesy, forthenryantiques
Courtesy, rebornpipes.com
C.P.F. calabash, courtesy, smokingpipes.com
VIC Dublin (1919), courtesy, smokingpipes.com
WDC Redmanol pipe with Redmanol bowl, courtesy, rebornpipes.com
Premier, courtesy Doug Valitchka via pipedia.org
Courtesy, bradfordsauction.com
There’s slight evidence that Redmanol stems were still being made or at least being used in the early 1940s. Above is a Reiss-Premier pipe with a Redmanol stem from the 1940s. Both Redmanol and Bakelite fell into disfavor sometime in the late 1930s to early 1940s and, to the best of my knowledge, neither material has experienced a revival or a resurgence. One opinion was the cost and complexity of production and their respective brittle nature.
As an aside: Did you notice that there’s only one meerschaum pipe with a Redmanol stem in this array? I wanted to include a few more … didn’t find them. Were fewer produced? I believe so, but not because of a shortage of Redmanol stems. The era of the everyday, “Plain Jane” meerschaum pipe was coming to an end during the first quarter of the 20th century. But meerschaum cigar and cigarette holders with Redmanol stems would be manufactured for a few more years. A resurgence of the meerschaum pipe began after World War II with the importation of finished pipes with acrylic and Lucite stems from Turkey, and that’s another story.
Having mentioned the likely confusion between Redmanol and ruby-red Bakelite during their heyday, this is a recent example. Olde Inverness Antiques posted the following for sale online: “Red Bakelite Cigarette Holder with Box. Here is a vintage bakelite cigarette holder in case. The label in the case is Redmanol! Evidently, the seller ignored the label.
Considering all the hype in that era about the miracle of Bakelite and Redmanol as ideal substitutes for amber (or amberoid), this is a telling critique from a respected industry trade journal:
“Owing to the fact that amber goods have found more and more favor in the world, people have tried to manufacture amber imitations, as Bakelite, Resen, Faturan, Dekorit, Leukorit, Redmanol, etc. All these are phenol compositions which partly possess the electric property of real amber but which are not able to keep their color when being exposed to the light. Only when being new, these imitations are like real amber, but after a short time they become discolored. The best guarantee (when) for the purchase of real amber is the name of the seller. No reputable house will sell any imitation for real amber” (“Amber a Fancy Article,” Tobacco, June 12, 1924, 11).
Conclusion
I don’t believe that either material for pipes and pipe stems will make a comeback … ever! But hope springs eternal for those who desire their return.
In any event, all this may be TMI for those who’d like to know just enough, but not too much, about these two old-time materials and have no interest in becoming a pipe-mouthpiece maven or a savvy pipe-stem substance-specialist. Unfortunately, I am someone, when asked the time of day, typically builds a watch for that someone. In this instance having been asked to write a few paragraphs about gutta percha and Redmanol, I have unfailingly written a lengthy essay.