A pipe is a device designed for smoking tobacco. There are a large number of material options for its manufacture in the world, however, it is the foam pipes that have especially ardent adherents.
Foam
Despite the fact that the word "foam" is mainly used in a slightly different sense, among tobacco smokers, this term refers primarily to the material used to make pipes. It is a marine mineral, and currently only foam is used in pipe production, which is mined in Turkey, near the city of Eskisehir. This, however, does not mean that you need to dive to the seabed for foam: we are talking about fossilized minerals that are mined at a depth of about 100 meters underground.
The history of the use of foam in the manufacture of smoking pipes is associated with the name of the Austrian nobleman Andrassi, who was once presented with a piece of raw foam as a souvenir. His friend Karl Kovat offered to put a beautiful souvenir on pipes and personally made a couple of such products - for himself and for Andrassi. This happened in 1723.
Foam tubes
Pipes were in use long before that, but in the past they were made primarily of clay. With the advent of foam pipes, clay as a raw material for this product faded into the background, being unable to resist the undoubted advantages of the new material.
So, one of the most important properties of a foam pipe for smokers is that it absolutely does not distort the taste of tobacco smoke, since it does not have its own pronounced aromatic shade. At the same time, the foam is a very unpretentious material to use: it does not require preliminary preparation before the first smoking session, for example, warming up or "smoking", and is not afraid of burning out, since it is a fairly strong mineral. In addition, the porous structure of the foam is the reason that it dries quickly enough that it can be used for smoking more often than other types of pipes.
However, due to its porous structure, the foam pipe intensively absorbs tobacco smoke, as a result of which, after several smoking sessions, it noticeably changes its appearance, becoming covered with yellowish stains. However, experts say that such a pattern gives each pipe its individuality and does not consider it a disadvantage.
Nevertheless, there are still drawbacks to a tube made of foam. Since foam is a natural material, it is quite fragile: if dropped on a hard floor, it is likely to break. Therefore, you need to handle it with care, observing accuracy even during the cleaning process.
