Meerschaum
a creamy colored mineral much used in the manufacture of tobacco pipes. It is composed chiefly of silicon and magnesium. When fresh meerschaum is rubbed with water it forms a foamy lather like soap. The name has reference to this peculiarity. It is a German word signifying sea foam. The chief meerschaum deposits are found in Asia Minor and in the island of Euboea. There are supplies in Spain, Moravia, and the Crimea, but at present practically the sole commercial supply is derived from some 1,270 pits in the vicinity of a city in Asia Minor. The industry is about 2,000 years old.
About 5,000 miners are engaged in the pits. The meerschaum occurs in the form of nuggets or nodules scattered throughout a layer of red earth. The miners work in groups of two to five, under the direction of a foreman. A well or pit is dug in the most primitive manner with shovels and picks. The layer of red earth may be found at a depth of a few yards, but ordinarily it is from sixty to 180 feet beneath the surface. The earth is dug out with picks. Natural columns of earth are left to support the overlying dirt. The nuggets are brought to the surface and scraped clean. Most of the nodules are of the size of a walnut. They are sorted in four principal sizes. There are thirteen commercial qualities. Formerly Vienna purchased almost the entire output, and sold to German pipemakers; but now shipments are made to Constantinople, Paris, London, Hamburg, New York, and other pipe-making centers. There the cubes are variously carved into pipe bowls. When fitted with amber mouthpieces, they are considered the most stylish pipe made. Meerschaum hardens with exposure to air, a process which is hastened by the maker who bakes his pipes, boils them in milk, polishes them, and boils them again in oil. When in use the moisture and heat of burning tobacco turn the white meerschaum to a rich brown color. Imitation meerschaum is made of plaster of Paris, hardened with paraffin and colored in various ways. The fragments which fall in the carving of pipes are ground, mixed into a paste, and pressed into cheap meerschaums. A variety of meerschaum clay is found in South Carolina. The annual value of the crude meerschaum is about $260,000.
Consul George N. Ifft, of Annaberg, in stating (June, 1907) that the passing of the German meerschaum industry seemed inevitable, furnished the following review of this trade:
From reports in current trade journals the industry is now facing a situation for which there seems to be no remedy, and the manufacturers of meerschaum pipes, cigar holders, etc., will have to go out of business or into some other line. They are unable to secure anything like an adequate supply of raw material, and for the triffing quantities they can secure must pay a greatly increased price. In the last three years prices of raw meerschaum have about doubled and, at the same time, America and England have secured control of practically all the meerschaum still to be had. Recently a small shipment has been received in Germany from Asia Minor--the first in some time. An advance of about thirty percent in price followed immediately.
Practically all known deposits of meerschaem have been exhausted, it being now found only in the mines of Asia Minor, and the output there is very small. Agents of American and English manufacturers have secured control of this entire output, and German manufacturers can count on no more supplies from that source. In the last five months the price of raw meerschaum has advanced fifty per cent.
The manufacturing town of Ruhla, in the Thuringian forest, will be the most affected. There from 3,000 to 4,000 workmen have for years past been employed in this industry. A Ruhla specialty is the meerschaum pipe, and with it goes hand in hand the manufacture of pipe stems, pipe lids and mountings, cigar holders, and mouthpieces. The annual output averages about 27,-000,000 pipe lids, 19,000,000 pipe cases, 15,000,-000 pipe stems, 10,000,000 mouthpieces, 10,000,-000 porcelain pipe bowels (covered), 5,500,000 imitation and 540,000 genuine meerschaum pipes with amber mouthpieces, 5,000,000 wooden pipe bowls, and 15,000,000 completed pipes--a production of the value of about $1,428,000 per annum. The first meerschaum factories were founded in Ruhla in 1767. For The Ruhl the passing of the meerschaum industry is a blow from which it will scarcely be able to recover, practically the entire population being dependent upon this industry.