From: "Gary Breylinger" <??????????????????>
Subject: Filters

Dear Steve,
    Please let me join the chorus of your readers who appreciate the 
labor of love you expend for the "community."
    It has been interesting to see the recent discussion on the subject 
of pipe filters.  I hope that we can agree that to filter or not to 
filter is a matter of individual preference and choice based upon any 
standard one wants to apply.  That said, I think that many of us who 
enjoy making, smoking, and owning "fine" pipes have a tendency to ignore 
or forget about the relative production volume among pipe 
manufacturers-makers.
    I suggest that if one totaled up the annual sales volume 6MM filter 
pipes of the Missouri Meerschaum Co., who advertise that they ship over 
7000 pipes per day (both filtered and unfiltered), plus the output of 
the S.M. Frank and Co. Medico Filter Pipes (production volume not 
mentioned on their web site, but it is huge--look in any drug store),  
Sparta Industries-Lane's Dr. Grabow Filter pipes (producing about one 
million pipes a year, including the non-filter Alpha), the number would 
be staggering.  Then add in the 9MM filter pipes made by Peterson, 
Brebbia, Stanwell, Dansk, Vauen, G. Jensen, Savinelli, Design Berlin, 
Giovanni di Varesse, Aldo Morelli, Bajarne, Bentley, Mastro Gepptto, L. 
Wood, Shaabi, Ph. Vigen, Cavicchi,  W.O. Larsen, Butz-Choquin, plus many 
others sold in Europe, and the numbers increase even more.
    It seems that there is no market in the USA for filter pipes among 
those buying 'better" and "high end" pipes.  Again, that is a matter of 
taste (no pun intended).  Lack of interest on that level does not mean 
lack of sales in the overall American pipe market.  I am going to stick 
my neck out and guess that perhaps half of the pipes sold in America are 
filter pipes. 20
    There will be many of you who read this who will have a far better 
idea of the figures than this old Geezer.  Won't someone do a little 
more digging to let us all have a better idea of the relative numbers 
involved?
        Yours in great clouds of smoke,  Gary Breylinger


~\U ~\U ~\U ~\U ~\U ~\U ~\U ~\U ~\U ~\U ~\U ~\U ~\U ~\U ~\U ~\U ~\U