23,116
edits
Missouri Meerschaum Factory Tour: Difference between revisions
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
no edit summary
No edit summary |
No edit summary |
||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
[[File:MissouriMeerschaum-Building.jpg|thumb|500px|The factory as it stands today (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 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|500px|The factory as it stands today (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 in March of 2019. The wonderful old building is just across the road from the Missouri River, which can be seen out 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 corn cob pipes in the early to mid 20th century. The founder, [[Henry Tibbe]] made pipes using a foot powered treadle lathe and other hand tools in a much smaller workshop, and resisted the notion of scaling up as the demand for his pipes increased. He founded the company in 1869, which is this year (2019) celebrating its 150th anniversary! | ||
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 the third floor, once humming with activity 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 retired machines, which are often gleaned for parts to maintain the machines that are still in production. The second floor has more cob storage, as well office space, and a wonderful museum and gift shop. The making of pipes, packaging, and the shipping and receiving area are on the first floor. There is an old freight elevator facilitating the production by transferring cobs and various parts and supplies between floors. It is driven by the original belt and cable system which was first powered by steam, and later converted to electricity. It is still carefully controlled using the same antiquated pulley system, and a false move can mean the unspooling 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 the third floor, once humming with activity 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 retired machines, which are often gleaned for parts to maintain the machines that are still in production. The second floor has more cob storage, as well office space, and a wonderful museum and gift shop. The making of pipes, packaging, and the shipping and receiving area are on the first floor. There is an old freight elevator facilitating the production by transferring cobs and various parts and supplies between floors. It is driven by the original belt and cable system which was first powered by steam, and later converted to electricity. It is still carefully controlled using the same antiquated pulley system, and a false move can mean the unspooling of a large cable. Thankfully that is rare! | ||