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Missouri Meerschaum Factory Tour: Difference between revisions
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[[File:MissouriMeerschaum-Building.jpg|thumb|350px|The factory as it stands in March 2019, when visited by [[S.E. Thile Pipes|Scott Thile]], Pipedia founder, and avid smoker of cobs]]The following photos and narrative are from a factory tour on my visit in March of 2019. The wonderful old building is just across the road from the Missouri River, which can be seen out | [[File:MissouriMeerschaum-Building.jpg|thumb|350px|The factory as it stands in March 2019, when visited by [[S.E. Thile Pipes|Scott Thile]], Pipedia founder, and avid smoker of cobs]]The following photos and narrative are from a factory tour on my visit in March of 2019. The wonderful old building is just across the road from the Missouri River, which can be seen out old windows that originally supplied the light to work by. The corner section is the original building, which was added onto in various stages, both upstairs and upriver, to keep up with the growing demand for cobs in the early to middle 20th century. [[Henry Tibbe]] made the early pipes using a foot powered trundle lathe and other hand tools in a much smaller workshop, and resisted the notion of scaling up as demand increased. | ||
Henry's son, Antone Tibbe is responsible for the building and additions, and was the primary force in the scaling up of the company. Most of third floor is now used for housing an inventory of cobs (aged at least 2 years before being crafted into pipes). There is also ample storage for some older machines, which are often gleaned for parts to maintain the machines that are still in production. The second floor has more cobs in storage, as well office space, and a wonderful museum and gift shop. The making of pipes, packaging, and shipping and receiving are on the first floor. There is an old freight elevator facilitating the production. It is driven by the original belt and cable system which was first power by steam, and later converted to electricity. It is still carefully controlled using the same antiquated system. A false move can mean the un-spooling of a large cable. Thankfully that is rare! | Henry's son, Antone Tibbe is responsible for the building and additions, and was the primary force in the scaling up of the company. Most of third floor is now used for housing an inventory of cobs (aged at least 2 years before being crafted into pipes). There is also ample storage for some older machines, which are often gleaned for parts to maintain the machines that are still in production. The second floor has more cobs in storage, as well office space, and a wonderful museum and gift shop. The making of pipes, packaging, and shipping and receiving are on the first floor. There is an old freight elevator facilitating the production. It is driven by the original belt and cable system which was first power by steam, and later converted to electricity. It is still carefully controlled using the same antiquated system. A false move can mean the un-spooling of a large cable. Thankfully that is rare! | ||