From: Steve Beaty <?????????????????????????>
Subject: meerschaum

>From: Chuck Basso <??????@??.??????.???>
>Subject: Meerschaum

>1.  Everyone knows that meerschaum translates to "sea-foam."  Why?  Due to
>its low specific gravity (1-2 times the weight of water) and considerable
>porosity, it will commonly float.  Romantic allusions aside, this seems the
>most plausible of all the explanations I have seen for the name.

Actually, in "Tobacco Leaves" (published in 1915 by Index Press), the
author W.A. Brennan explains the origin of the name in the idea that
the substance we call meerschaum was thought to be fossilized sea-foam
(!) I don't have the book in front of me, but there are references to
other publications that he cites as his sources. If you would like
those references, send me e-mail.

There's even a lovely little anecdote about the first meerschaum pipe
being made, which I will transcribe if there is interest. (It's a GREAT
little book, if a bit outdated in some of its technical and economic
data)

--Kurt Ackermann

Steve Beaty                                               ???????????????
Hewlett-Packard                                 ?????????????????????????
Fort Collins, Colorado, USA        http://www.lance.colostate.edu/~beaty/


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