Peterson Pipes
Encyclopedia
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
pipe maker.
History
Friedrich and Heinrich Kapp, GermanGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
immigrants to Ireland from Nürnberg, founded the famed Kapp Brothers store on Grafton Street, Dublin in 1865. Shortly thereafter, a Latvian immigrant, Charles Peterson, strolled into the Kapp workshop and declared that he could make better pipes than they could. Armed with an imaginative flair for pipes and a craftsman's background, Peterson not only proved himself correct, but became the third partner in the fledgling firm.
Today, Peterson, run by Thomas Palmer, makes about 100,000 pipes annually, distributed all over the world. After Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, the US is the largest market with 12-15% of Peterson's production.
Pipes
Perhaps the most notable design from the Kapp and Peterson factory was Peterson's famed 'Dry System' pipes, patented in 1894. Featuring a small reservoir intended to collect moisture before it reaches the smoker, the 'System Pipe' is designed to create a drier and cooler smoke and discourage the formation of dottleDottle
Dottle is the wet and sour-smelling mass of unburned tobacco found at the bottom of a tobacco pipe. Dottle is produced by a combination of two reasons, first the smoker is a "wet smoker", that is, he pushes a considerable amount of saliva down the stem and into the bowl, and second the tobacco...
. The System Pipe is still a consistent top seller for Peterson.
Another notable design from Peterson is the so-called "P-lip": a mouthpiece that directs smoke upwards towards the roof of the mouth instead of the tongue. This is intended to produce a drier and less biting smoke than when smoke is directed at the tongue, as with other pipes.
Peterson offers many different model of pipes. The different models include Aran, Donegal Rocky, Harp, Irish Army, Killarney, Rosslare Classic, Shannon and Standard. Each of these pipes offer the Peterson Dry System. Some models are available in both fishtail or P-Lip mouthpiece.