Smoking The Dottle
ghostsofpompeii
Master
A blogger going by the name Alan DP posted an informative article highlighting Featured Pipe Smoker (fictional) Sherlock Holmes and within the article is a section about Holmes prepensely to begin the day by smoking the dottle left over from the day before. He writes:
"Plugs and dottles. Watson also mentions that Holmes' first pipe of the morning "consisted of all the plugs and dottles of the previous day," or something similar. When tobacco is burned, it releases the natural oils within. These oils have to go somewhere, and gravity insists that they go down to the bottom of the pipe bowl. The leaves in the bottom will often become too moist to smoke. This is natural, and is to be expected.* "Dottle" is the term used for these unburned leaves that are dumped out when the pipe is finished. I suppose a "plug" is just Watson's term for a clump of dottle that sticks together when dumped out. (Unless he's refering to the "plug" of ash that results. This doesn't make sense to me, because once it has become ash it can't really be burned again). Apparently, Holmes liked to start his day by smoking all these leftover unburned bits from the day before. Some might think this is only taking the Delayed Gratification Technique** to the extreme. I think it is simply a sign of Holmes' miserliness. I must say that the thought of doing this kind of turns my stomach. It seems likely that Holmes' pipe loads would have burned down to nothing but ash, and he wouldn't have had much in the way of plugs and dottles to salvage."
Not only do I find the practice as stomach churning as the author of the piece but it got me wondering if members actual do this as well. Are you brave enough, foolish enough, or cheap enough to smoke a collection of that nasty dottle in the bottom. And if so was the experience a one off or a common practice. And if so - other than the benefit of saving money on tobacco - what are you getting out of that bowl full of dottle in terms of the actual smoking experience. Seems to me it would taste like tar.
Comments
Like Woodsman, I do occasionally smoke the entire dottle, but it is not intentional. I just find out about it after I dump the remaining ash. IMO, I think the particular blend you are smoking can be the determining factor in being able to enjoy it all, as well as how the flavor is affected. Also, a shallow bowled pipe could affect the flavors less negatively than a deeper bowled pipe that had created more residue on the dottle.
The primary reason I don't attempt to smoke all the way to the bottom of my pipe, is an attempt to keep my pipes in pristine condition. At one point in this journey, I had to change my way of thinking, in that my pipes are more precious to me than my tobaccos.
When we started this discussion I was trying to remember the financial status of Sherlock Holmes to see if I could come to terms with why he would resort to smoking yesterday's dottle. Was he of a miserly disposition because he wasn't a wealthy man of means. We've often seen him complaining about the lack of challenging cases ... leading one to believe he may well have passed on more cases than he actually accepted do to the banality of the case. And as to his source of steady income he once stated "his professional charges were upon a fixed scale (although no mention of that scale is revealed) and he did not vary them, save when he remitted them altogether".
So with that in mind I was gathering a better picture of why the man might be smoking dottle from the day before. Maybe he was not that well to do. But the deeper one looks into the facts of his more famous cases he often accepted - as well as requested - a considerably higher fee from rich clients or those of a particularly unpleasant disposition. How high were those fees you might ask?:
For three separate cases "The Beryl Coronet", "The Blue Carbuncle" and "A Scandal In Bohemia" Holmes was paid 1000 pounds ... which would be the equivalent of $100,000.00 today. His fee for "The Priory School" was a whopping 6,000 pounds - or - $600,00.00. And his fee for "The Last Bow" was 500 ponds - or - $50,000.00. So the money gathered from those cases alone would have more than subsidized any gratis charity cases - or the bulk of his cases where he received his usual "fixed fee".
So taking all that into consideration I can see no reason why Holmes would resort to smoking the putrid dottle from the day before unless he actually like that bold nasty taste ... or just wanted to aggravate Doctor Watson.
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