Patent GB-189809569-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in Machines for Making Cigarettes.
Inventor: GILLILAND EZRA TORRENCE
Filed: 1898-04-26
Granted: 1898-09-17
Abstract: 9569. Gilliland, E. T. April 26. Cigarette - making machines.-Relates to a continuous-rod cigarette machine. The loose tobacco is spread upon an endless apron 5, Fig. 2, provided with suitable tension adjustments and driven by clutch mechanism so that it can be stopped independently of the main shaft. The tobacco as it passes over the end of the apron is compressed and gripped by a roll studded with hemispherical projections, and it then passes between fluted feed-rolls to a large picker-roll the teeth of which are arranged spirally on its surface. It then passes between a pair of picking-rolls, of which one runs at a higher peripheral speed than the other, and is finally swept by a stripping-roll into a vertical channel, being showered upon a travelling steel belt 38 passing over wheels 61, 62. The stream of filler so formed is compressed between the belt 38 and a short inclined belt passing over a pair of wheels mounted above it. The compressed filler now passes beneath the disc 106, which prevents its expansion before reaching the forming-wheels 69, 70, the edges of which are grooved so as to give the cigarette a circular, elliptical, or other desired section. The path which the filler rod now takes is inclined both to the belt 38 and to the main shaft 4 of the machine. Passing down a short incline the filler rod enters a trough 107, in which the endless wrapping-tape and the continuous paper strip 116 have already been curved into U shape. The paper strip is fed from a reel 115, and the wrapping-tape passes over two wheels, of which the wheel 108 is seen in Fig. 2. The paper strip is gradually curved about the filler rod, the upturned edge 121, Fig. 42, being pasted by the wheel 123 and then folded down so as to complete the cigarette rod. Fig. 22 shows a section near the top of the paste-supplying apparatus, which swings about a hinge 133 so that the paste wheel 123 may be moved away from the cigarette rod for inspection &c. A paste reservoir 137 contains a plunger which gradually rises until the yielding of a flexible cover actuates levers which release a clutch and stop its movement. The pressure of the paste in the reservoir is thus maintained constant. The paste passes through apertures 161 in the rotating tube 155, and along the grooves of the screw-threaded and oppositely-rotating spindle 162, escaping between them at 157 and being spread by the conical end 159 on the edge of the paste wheel. The supply of paste can be controlled both by regulating the pressure at which the plunger is stopped and by means of the screw 173, which pushes forward the spindle 162 against the action of the platespring 172. The cutting-device for the cigarette rod is contained within the guard 204, Fig. 2, and is shown in Fig. 27. The cigarette rod 206 passes along in inverted U-shaped channels in the links 215, and is cut as it travels by the helical knife 202, which gradually increases in radius towards the right. The links, which are slotted to receive the knife-edge are driven forward by its action at the same speed as the cigarette. In a modification, a segment of a helical cutter is used, mounted on a helical guide which drives the links 215, and sharpening-blocks are mounted on one or more of the links which can be adjusted to bear against the two sides of the cutting-edge. To adjust the cutting-mechanism so that the rod may be cut exactly at the desired point, which is necessary where paraffined bands &c. occur at intervals, and to allow of the cutting-point being retrograded when slip or drag takes place in feeding the rod, a special "escapement clutch," Figs. 46 and 49, is provided. The main shaft 4 drives the sleeve 235, on which the cutter is mounted, by the action of one or other of the teeth 244, 245 on the teeth of the wheel 236<1>. Owing to the relative position of the teeth on the two sides of the wheel, the sleeve 235 falls back a step behind the shaft 4 every time the spline-driven sleeve 239 is moved to and fro on the latter by the lever 246. The machine is described in detail in the Specification, with the aid of twenty-two sheets of drawings.