Peterson System Standard: a Closer Look at the System Pipe

Peterson System Standard is the most common and plainest version of "System," the best-known design of the Dublin firm Kapp & Peterson. The brand owes much of its worldwide reputation to this mechanism: a reservoir meant to catch the moisture in the smoke before it reaches the smoker, paired with a specially shaped mouthpiece that directs the smoke toward the palate. In Peterson's catalogue, System pipes still stand as a separate family.

The Sequence of Patents

The system's present form is not the result of a single invention but of several patents that build on one another. According to records, the first patent dates to 1890 and covers the moisture reservoir carved into the transition area between shank and bowl; the reservoir is created by raising the smoke channel higher than usual, leaving an empty space beneath it. The stepped mouthpiece bore is cited to 1891, and the mouthpiece tip known as P-Lip to patents from 1894 and 1898. Added to these was the army mount, the metal band wrapping around the shank, and the mechanism arrived at its present-day identity.