Professor Frederick K. Kirsten was a genuine American original.  He first sailed to this country in 1902, as a cabin boy from Hamburg, Germany.  After successfully rounding the Horn and eluding the shanghai gangs of the West Coast, he navigated the educational system at the University of Washington to become a Professor of Aeronautical Engineering. 

 Here, his inventive spirit took wing.  He created the world-famous Kirsten Wind Tunnel, Air-washing equipment for factories, an air-cooled Utopian Bed, and, most notably, a revolutionary propeller which enables boats to stop and turn on a dime.  (Today, in the same waters where he jumped ship almost 100 years ago, ocean-going vessels are landed by sturdy tugs driven by Kirsten cycloidal propellers, piloted by equally sturdy captains smoking cool Kirsten pipes.) 

Rightly called the coolest pipe in the world, this latter innovation came about in 1936 when a doctor advised Professor Kirsten to switch from cigarettes. He quickly dreamed up a way to trap the moisture, tars and tongue-biting acids which attack the users of briar pipes.  You hold the inspired results in your hands. 

After almost 50 years, Kirsten pipes are still produced by the Kirsten family, faithfully following the basic designs of this father of invention.   When we're not making pipes, the Kirsten factory keeps busy turning out close tolerance parts for the latest Boeing aircraft.