COMOY’S Grand Slam Patent 36B
England, 1930s
The history of smoking pipes at the beginning of XX century in USA can be described as “revelry of a modernism and innovations”. Let’s make a completely new type of a stinger! No, let’s add an additional camera into the chamber! No, let’s drill an additional channel in the stem, so we could clean it “on the fly” (Masercraft)! No, we have an idea how to make a pipe, which you can clean on-the-go (we wrote about such patent too)!
Fortunately or not, but English makers resisted the majority of such temptations. But that doesn’t mean they were incapable to invent. They were very much capable. And some their inventions surely endured ерщшук inventors, and “modernism era”, and, seemingly, will endure the anti-smoking era.
One of the most striking examples is patented Como’ys Grand Slam pipes. And of course, their famous stingers with the leather washer. Except ensuring a witty aerodynamics, this invention allowed also to clean the mortize comfortably and practically. This tricky device received the Canadian patent Nr. 341422 in the 1933 and the USA patent Nr. 2001612 (according to some sources, two years later). Another one practical innovation implemented in Grand Slam pipes is the armed end of shank, thus you shouldn’t be afraid of cracks here (a typical and very annoying problem). We can’t tell yet, which patent number was granted for this innovation, but in any case it was expected (“Pat. pending”). So, the pipes like our today’s Grand Slam were even twice patented!
The Grand Slam series started in the 1930s (according to the one of legends – in 1933, and it was named so in honor of success of a British tennis player) and was made up to the 1970s. The patent system with marking existed till the beginning of the 1950s. In this case the Country of Manufacturing stanp is really helpful – such a marking “MADE IN ENGLAND” (in circle and without “LONDON”) was specific only for the 1930s.
The pipe markings are “COMOY’S \ GRAND SLAM \ PATENT”, “MADE \ IN \ ENGLAND”, “U.S.PAT. \ 2001612”, “36B”, “PAT.PENDING”, “*2”. The length is 15.0 cm, bowl’s hight is 4.8 cm. External and internal diameters of the bowl are 3.4 cm and 2.0 cm. The depth is 4.0 cm and this pipe weights 32 gr. Briar, vulcanite stem, patented Grand Slam stinger. The chamber has a moderate webbing, but we didn’t find any major issues. The stem looks very naturally, it’s hard to say is it a very well made replacement one or is it the original one with a buffed out logo.
