httpc:request pipelining example and blocking problem

I'm trying to exclusively use inets httpc for some simple REST request.  Please
do NOT suggest other Erlang HTTP clients; the exercise is to only use inets
httpc.  The docs for the httpc client are pretty poor and online searches
haven't helped.

Two questions:

1. Does anyone have an example of using inets httpc to do pipeline requests?

2. I've managed a single asynchronous request to a Ruby based service which
worked fine.  Now when I try make a request to an Erlang Cowboy based service
(an old Erlang 19 3rd party application), the request goes through and the reply
sent (as observed using tcpdump), but the process blocks until the timeout,
never returning the response.

-- 
Anthony C Howe         	                                       SnertSoft
[email protected]     Twitter: SirWumpus            BarricadeMX & Milters
http://snert.com/    http://nanozen.snert.com/     http://snertsoft.com/