The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1895-01-31
NEW CIGARETTE MACHINE.
Two Inventions that Promise Much
for the South.
Especial Correspondence Manufacturers
Record

RICHMOND, Va, January 21.
There is a good prospect of revolu
tionizing methods being introduced in
two of the South's great staples, cotton
and tobacco, based on inventions that
promise to be of much value to the
South. Investigations that l have
been making lead me to believe that
both will prove successful. So far as
cotton is concerned, the one thing
needful is an invention to make better
bales with less expense to the grower.
There are several of these inventions
claiming to have solved the problem
for doing away with the existing
baling and comprising system, which
Mr.. Edward Atkinson calls the "most
barbarous" packing known to the
commercial world. The result of
Investigations now being made into
the merits of various devices will
doubtless soon result in bringing i'm
proved baling and comprising matters
prominently before the country, as
some leading capitalists in this country
and in Europe are interested in these
investigations.
In the matter of tobacco, it has been
plauslbly maintained that growers,
leaf handlers and venders of finished
products were harassed and hampered :,
not to say injured, by tine fact that all,
or nearly all, the cigarette machines in
use are controlled by a single company,
which, by having virtually monopoly
of this particular tobacco product, was
| enabled in measure to control makers
of plug and smoking goods by debating
terms to jobbers and retailers all over
the country as to what goods they
should be permitted to keep in stock.
Without going into the real merits
Of these allegations, the public mind
has been long looking for the day
when inventive ingenuity should place
within the reach of even the smallest
manufacturer some machine which
would enable him to be free from the
| interference of any trust or monopoly
Should one exist or should one arise, }
by enabling him to make his own
cigarettes, as we'll as other smoking
goods and plug
From an investigation that have
been making in Richmond, Va, it
| would seem that this desideratun has
been provided in the Wood cigarette
machine, at least in SO far as concerns
the making of the higher and better
grades.
This invention possesses three features
of cardinal merit-originality, SIM
plicity, and inexpensveness in con-
struction and operation. In respect
to its originality, it is given as the
deliberate opinion of patent experts
that there is no possibility of any pre-
tense of infringement. In respect to
its simplicity, it is not only free from
complications, but when set upon a
table is not very much larger than a
! typewriting machine. In respect tC
its inexpensiveness in construction, i,
costs only about onetenth OF what is
required to build the next cheapest
machine now in use, while the labor
and power necessary to turn out with
it any given unit of product costs less
by 1878 per cent. than with any other
heretofore placed upon the market.
Indeed, it is thought that cigarette
making with this machine will ulti-
mately become an adjunct of every
small cigar shop in the country, as,
with the Wood machine, it is possible
for even statesmen and saleswomen to
put in their idle time making ciga
re,tes, as is done largely abroad, bu'
by hand.
What the owners of the invention
propose to do in the way of manu-
featuring or marketing the machine
the writer is not advised.
THOs. P. CEASTY.