I will try and make a complicated subject coherent.  Every little store
that sold tobacco would have a "tobacco cutter".  This was a nifty little
device like a guillotine.  Used by some graduate students in their less
lucid moments to terrify hamster's.  These stores also had large "store
tins" of tobacco that were approximately the size of a bread box.  They
were filled with chunks of tobacco that looked like dimensional lumber.
The most common sizes appear to be about 3-4 inches wide, an inch thick,
and about a foot long (sorry about not using metric).  The tobacco cutters
almost always had small marks along the base and one could buy it by the
sixteenth of an inch, eighth of an inch, quarter inch, larger increments or
a whole foot (or an increment in between).  The tobacco could be used for
"chaw" or smoking.

A slice of about 1/16 of an inch was considered a single pipe bowl full.
One could still purchase a "pocket" tin of slices in the 1970s.  I believe
the brand was "Edgeworth".  For smoking, the slice would be rubbed in the
hand until the desired size had been achieved and then placed into the
pipe.    Another FUN tobacco type is "Ready Rubbed".  This is tobacco
sliced from plugs and mechanically "rubbed" so the consumer does not have
to do it.  What a convenient!

Tobacco has always been made primarily for smoking.   Both plug and twist
tobacco have always been used for both smoking and chewing.  Chewing
tobacco is strictly American and you won't normally find it for sale
outside the US unless you are at the Calgary Stampede or a shop- that
caterers to Americans.  I know the history of chewing tobacco goes back to
at least the early 1700s.  In the best American make-a-buck spirit, some
tobacco was manufactured fairly early with flavorings for folks who chewed
tobacco.

So twist, plug, cut plug and plug slice always equals smoking!  However,
ALL smoking tobacco could be chewed.  I have know tobacco chewers who will
chew cigars if nothing else is available.  SOME twist and plug tobacco was
manufactured specifically for chewing.

Does this help?

Smoke.



Smoke (Michael A.) Pfeiffer, RPA
Ozark-St. Francis National Forests
605 West Main Street
Russellville, Arkansas 72801
(479) 968-2354  Ext. 233
e-mail:  [log in to unmask]

It is easier to get forgiveness than permission.




                      Robin Mills
                      <Robin_Mills@blm         To:      [log in to unmask]
                      .gov>                    cc:
                      Sent by:                 Subject: "PLUG" Tobacco Tins
                      HISTORICAL
                      ARCHAEOLOGY
                      <[log in to unmask]
                      u>


                      04/16/2003 07:17
                      PM
                      Please respond
                      to HISTORICAL
                      ARCHAEOLOGY






HISTARCH members,

I used to assume that tobacco tins with the word "PLUG" on them, in their
lithography, meant that the tin contained chewing tobacco.

A very well preserved EDGEWORTH EXTRA HIGH GRADE PLUG SLICE tobacco tin has
come to light from a recent excavation with lithography on the inside of
the lid, something I'd never found before. It clearly identified the
contents for EITHER smoking OR chew.

Other examples of brands I've excavated with "plug" identified in the
lithography include: J.G. DILL'S BEST CUT PLUG, LUCKY STRIKE CUT PLUG, and
J. G. DILL'S  BEST  CUBE  CUT PLUG.

Question: Is my original assumption clearly wrong ("plug" = "chew")?  Is
"Plug Slice" = smoking or chew, and "Cut Plug" = chew?


Any advice or insightful comments would be appreciated.


Best,

Robin