Weapons and surgical instruments. In the 18th century, people didn’t just smoke from clay pipes.

In the UK, pipes were among the first mass-produced disposables, a fact that is often overlooked. The pipe, along with tobacco, came to Europe in the early 16th century through contact with the indigenous peoples of the Americas. However, IFLScience writes that they were used for centuries in the Americas before being taken to Europe.

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To suit European tastes, pipes were replaced with European materials and clay became the most popular in England between 1600 and 1900. Although the design of the pipes has changed over the years, the basic design has remained the same: a hand-held bowl for burning tobacco and a chibouk for drawing smoke into the smoker’s mouth.

The lightness, hardness and cheapness of the tubes made them quite common but also quite fragile. For this reason, they are found in large numbers at post-medieval archaeological sites in England.

The importance of pipes as historical artifacts is well known, and they have proven useful in helping researchers determine when and by whom a particular area was occupied based on bite marks on barrels, as well as barrel and bowl sizes. indicates that workers are holding pipes in their mouths while they work. Pipes also provide information about tobacco use patterns over time.

But recent research has uncovered new interesting facts about how people used pipes in the past. Beginning in the 17th century, and especially in the 18th century, pipes were used as weapons and medical instruments alongside more traditional smoking uses.

These new data allow us to look at the daily lives of people in the past and ensure that historians and archaeologists do not just think about the purpose of objects. They also tell us that pipes play a larger role in people’s lives than previously thought and take center stage in everyday life.

Clay tobacco pipes were ideal for use as improvised weapons because they could be caught and broken. In about three-quarters of the cases studied, people attacked others with a pipe, resulting in serious stab wounds, blindness, and even death.

For example, in 1788 Sylvanus Owen was convicted of manslaughter after hitting another man with his right hand in Caernarfonshire, Wales. The blow was fatal because Owen was holding two pieces of clay pipes at the time, and one of them got into the victim’s eye, causing a serious infection.

Pipes were also used to deliberately set other people on fire and to be fired by pistols. The same properties that made pipes excellent improvised weapons also made them useful for improvised medical procedures. The availability of pipes meant that one was always at hand, and their long, narrow stems and wide bowls allowed the pipes to be used for more than just smoking.

Medical publications and surgical guidelines such as The Lancet suggest that tube stems can be used as catheters to relieve urinary retention in men and women. Tubes have also been recommended for emergency tracheotomies, straws for those who cannot eat or drink on their own, and as a breastfeeding aid for nursing mothers.

Even Charles Darwin’s grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, recommended using a pipe handle to remove a sea worm, a waterborne parasite found in parts of Africa, from an infected patient.

As a result, the combination of properties and affordability of clay tobacco pipes made them ideal tools in the hand, both as weapons and as medical instruments. The irony of their dual use to end life and preserve it is a fascinating contradiction.

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