Hi guys (and gals maybe !), I thought I would tell you about a modification
to a pipe I have invented which is pretty neat - I wonder maybe if anyone
else has tried it. I inherited a "meerschaum" type pipe from my grandfather
when he died, I think it is real old. First I just kept it but then I got
wondering what it would be like to smoke it, but you know I sort of didn't
want to smoke it because he was dead ? Anyway, one night after a few beers I
tried it out and it was real good. It has a real big bowl and I got a good
buzz on. That time I used tobacco taken out of cigarettes but after I bought
some proper pipe tobacco.

Problem was that it took real long to smoke down, with the bowl being big as
I said. So one day I thought maybe I could burn the tobacco plug faster. So,
I drilled a real narrow hole in the base of the bowl (it was hard to do, it
was made of  like stone or something) and connected up a small rubber tube
with a small bleed of pure oxygen, we have some cannisters around for my
mother's emphysema. After some practice adjusting the bleed rate I found the
plug could burn maybe 2 times faster than usual - one time I checked out
the plug half-way through and it looked like it was burning from the bottom
of the bowl as well as at the top. I think also the burn temperature is
higher so you get more aromatic taste in the smoke too.

Maybe you guys would like to try the idea - I do not want to patent
it or anything.

Roy Grainger