Churchwardens - what I like and what I don't

Lots of knowledge very little wisdom see the heat of a candle flame to show how even a short distance changes heat. You can do the same thing by holding your hand over a burner on your stove. But I digress.

See what happens if you encase the candle flame in a small wooden cup. Or a piece of rubber rod with a hole drilled in it

Air is a good insulator, but it is a gas.  A candle flame in open air can dissipate heat by inducing the gas itself to move out of the way.

Rubber and wood tend to remain solid.

But how will you pump air through the pipe to simulate draw?

Hate to rain on your parade but a laser thermometer only reads what the dot is touching. It really is not accurate reading air temps, just solids or liquids. For example I took temps of the walls in one room I had 4 different readings because of the location of the walls to the outside. The warmest was the innermost wall and the coldest the outside walls. I had a probe thermometer in the middle of the room and it read steady the air temp of the room. The only time I use my laser thermometer is to play with the cats. I would be curious to see what you come up with though.

At least you are proposing an experiment which I applaud you for. As with any experiment, after starting with a carefully planned first step, the means & results of the experiment should be questioned to open up further testing, if necessary. Hopefully, after all is said and done, you will come to a proper conclusion(s).

PS One suggestion I would make is using the same pipe (Obviously with different stem lengths which should be as similar as possible;same material etc.), tobacco, packing technique etc.

Maybe measure the temperature of the stem at both ends?

I wish I could accommodate the longer pipes. I regularly smoke while I'm doing other things. I'll go really long periods clenching and at other times I'm working in small spaces. A 10" pipe or longer would be more of an aggravation than a pleasure at those times...which defeats the whole point of smoking a pipe.

I do enjoy my wardens occasionally when having a sit-down smoke.
But I would have to wait until I have more of those types of smokes before I could justify more church wardens in my collection.
For now there are too many 5" pipes I want that check all the boxes for what I like during my daily use.

I was making the suggestion, not asking you to make a pipe.😁

I have thought a churchwarden smoked cooler, but i am really not sure. It may be, but it is, in my experience, not enough of a difference to consistently notice it.

And the stem, in my experience, never seems to get hot. Doesn't that mean that no heat is dissipating from the stem, so the smoke at the mouth is the same temperature as at the bowl?

In any event, its not a concern. I never recall the smoke being too hot in regular pipes. I don't think tongue bite is a temperature thing, as much as how I puff, and how the shape of the opening focuses the smoke stream.

But I am not an expert, I just smoke the dern things, I don't study them. I do enough study in my work, for which I get paid.

Read an article in Outwest Tobacco that said that the cooler smoking properties of a churchwarden is not due to the larger stem surface area and external dispersion of heat, but due the greater volume of air within the stem which allows the heat to disperse inside the stem cooling the inside air down. If that's the case, the temperature at either end of the stem would be no different. You'd have to compare temperatures between two different pipes. Or the same pipe with two different stems. 

Is this the article you are referring to?
www.outwesttobacco.com/Cool_Smoke.htm

Smellthehatfirst, I accept the physics (or is it mech engineering) of what you say. I would love to see the experiment done, though, just out of pipe smoking curiosity. 
Sadly, now I have to go shopping for a 20 foot stem. 

I did not say anything concerning the articles validity. While I believe you are correct about a number of things, at times your way of approaching folks can be a bit off putting (at least to a few). In some ways, I can come across the same way. So I understand and take no issue. One can always embrace or leave my statements and I will still be interested in that person's thoughts and ideas.


My belief that an experiment is in order here goes hand in hand with my training and experience, where results can sometimes surprise one (I state this even as I think your points are compelling.) and modify thinking. Why do I believe this to be true? As a scientist, I have experienced it. My field is not in pipe mechanics but molecular (dynamics & Spectroscopy) and optical (Lasers and various optical environments.) chemistry/physics and instrumentation development. Legend Lover was an Analytical Chemist working with XRay crystallography before becoming a clergyman. I claim no special expertise in pipe mechanics though my studies/research have taken me into other disciplines. Sometimes😁, I can also rely on my fairly strong general background. I am curious as to what you do for a living(and thank you for your thought provoking posts)? Let's see what Legend Lover finds out.