Pipe lighter (Pipe tongs)

Description

These pocket-size pipe tongs are designed to be an all-in-one tobacco tool. The long flat side could double as a striker to ignite a spark, the rounded terminal on the opposite handle served as a tamper, and the tapered tips at the opposite end are hinged and connected by a steel spring to hold a hot coal between the oval pads. Metal tongs of this type are variously called pipe tongs, ember tongs, or tobacco tongs. An early example of the form was excavated at the fort site in Historic Jamestown, Virginia. In the 1890s the term "smoker's companion" emerged to describe similar tobacco tools.