As night falls in old London and fog settles in the deserted streets, Holmes and Watson are found gathered by the fire in 221B Baker Street. There is a knock on the door and a uniformed Telegram Boy dashes in.
“Message for you Mr ‘Omes, Sir - from Americkay, just came down the Electric Wire so it must be important shall I wait for a reply?”
“No Boy, it’ll probably be midnight there just now I’ll attend to it shortly. Watson, give the lad a penny for his trouble!”
The Detective reads the note and passes it to Watson, “You know my methods Watson, tell me what you make of this and its author?”
Watson reads the form, lights his pipe and considers at length before replying, “Elementary Holmes, the correspondent simply prefers an easy to fill device!”
Shaking his head - “ Ah but the writer Watson, the Writer? Clearly he or she must have been a smoker, used to the convenience of taking out one of those new pre packed machine made cigarettes and setting light to it with a self contained igniting device. Consider had he been a British pipe smoker he would have been attuned to the need for somewhat lengthier preparations before he could have communed with the Lady Nicotine and achieved his satisfaction!”
Standing up and demonstrating - “Would he not firstly have had to go through the initial ritual of patting his pockets to establish the whereabouts of his pipe, his tobacco pouch and his matches - thus and thus? Having found same, would he not then place his pipe in his mouth, so, and then blow through it to remove any fragments of ash before selecting a flake of tobacco from his pouch then rubbing it out carefully, at the same time taking care that in his concentration he did not bite too hard on his pipestem? Then would he not have to fill his pipe slowly so as not to over pack it, return it to his mouth to check the draw was correct and apply his first charring light, letting the pipe go out before re-tamping his tobacco and applying the second light before he could savour the delights of his smoke?”
Watson - “Amazing Holmes, simply amazing!”
Holmes, returning to his seat - “And there you have The Case of the Perceived Nautilus Complication solved Watson! Always remember that our American Cousins are at heart engineers and will seek an engineering solution to most problems. It is my firm belief that those of that great Nation will one day invent a portable device capable of holding it’s own nicotinic liquid which upon the push of the container will propel that into an ignition device and that it will fired by electricity!”
“Never Homes - that is simply not possible!”
“Time will tell Watson , time will tell! Mrs Hudson - you may now bring in the tea!”
