Smoke:
What about the "plug" tobacco tins (i.e. small metal labels
with prongs that
were pressed into the tobacco units)? Where these for all types of tobacco
or just for
chewing plugs?
RLS
At 08:59 AM 4/17/2003 -0500, you wrote:
>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
Robert L. Schuyler
University of Pennsylvania Museum
33rd & Spruce Streets
Philadelphia, PA l9l04-6324
Tel: (215) 898-6965
Fax: (215) 898-0657
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