Originally Posted by ThayerRags

I see a lot of posts that mention sewing machines “covered with cigarette smoke”, “coated with smoke...the brown of tobacco and nicotine”, “coated with cigarette smoke grime”, and so forth......

Considering the age of some of our “vintage” machines, I wonder if there are times when a foreign coating on a machine or cabinet might be misdiagnosed as cigarette smoke, when it could be something else?

I would think that many of my old sewing machines could have been in homes that were heated with coal or heating oil, by stoves or furnaces that didn’t always send all of the smoke out the chimney like they were supposed to do. And some older machines were possibly used around oil lamps as well. Possibly with the lamp setting right on the cabinet.

Do you suppose that some of the gunk on old sewing machines that we think is tobacco smoke could be coal or oil smoke instead, and that some of the previous owners never touched a cigarette in their life?

Here’s a scenario for you:
Ma & Pa have finished their evening meal and retired to the parlor where they can soak up the warmth from the coal stove before retiring on to bed. Ma sets down to her treadle sewing machine while Pa nestles down in the big old stuffed chair nearby and fires up his favorite pipe. Pa had lit a couple of oil lamps right after stoking up the stove with a little shot of kerosene while Ma was clearing the dishes away. Ma has one lamp setting on her sewing machine to light up her work area, and Pa has one on the stand next to his chair so he can read the newspaper. After a fairly long spell, Pa gets up, opens the shove door, and banks up the fire with more coal for the night. Soon after, both Ma and Pa retire to bed for the night.

Ok now. How much of the gunk on Ma’s sewing machine is from tobacco?

CD in Oklahoma