AN IMPROVED PROCESS FOR DRYING AND CURING LEAF TOBACCO RAISED FROM HAVANA SEED, AND TO BE USED FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF CIGARS IN ORDER TO IMPART TO IT THE COLOR AND FLAVOR OF REAL HAVANA TOBACCO INDEPENDENT OF THE SOIL AND CLIMATE IN WHICH IT IS RAISED
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Darius Culp, of Gilroy, County of Santa
Clara, State of California, in the United States of America,
for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED PROCESS FOR DRYING AND CURING
LEAF TOBACCO RAISED FROM HAVANA SEED, AND TO BE USED FOR THE
MANUFACTURE OF CIGARS IN ORDER TO IMPART TO IT THE COLOR AND
FLAVOR OF REAL HAVANA TOBACCO INDEPENDENT OF THE SOIL AND CLIMATE
IN WHICH IT IS RAISED."
Scaled the 18th June 1872, and dated the 6th May 1872.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said James Darius Culp at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and
Declaration, on the 6th May 1872, pursuant to the 9th Section
of the Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES

page_text: PROCESS FOR DRYING AND CURING LEAF TOBACCO RAISED FROM HAVANA SEED,
AND TO BE USED FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF CIGARS IN ORDER TO IMPART TO
IT THE COLOR AND FLAVOR OF REAL HAVANA TOBACCO, INDEPENDENT OF THE
SOIL AND CLIMATE IN WHICH IT IS RAISED," and have petitioned Her
Majesty to grant unto me, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
Her Royal Letters Patent for the same, and have made solemn
Declaration that I really believe myself to be the first and true
Inventor thereof.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said James Darius Culp, do hereby 1
declare that the following Complete Specification, under my hand and
seal, fully describes the nature of my said Invention and the manner in
which the same is to be performed:
The object of my Invention is to prevent the tobacco from drying
before it has reached the desired color, and also to prevent an escape of 1
the aroma from the leaf while it is undergoing the process of drying.
The common mode of treating tobacco after it is cut is to hang it
vertically with the butt of the stalk upward and with the leaves
hanging more or less close together. Thus it is left to dry rapidly and
unevenly, much of it with an ugly green color; and as the drying is 2
dependent upon the condition of the weather, the proper color of the
leaf is not secured and the aroma of the tobacco is lost.
f
By my improved process these difficulties are avoided, and the color
of the leaf and the fine quality of the tobacco are developed in the
curing, and no longer depend upon the soil and climate.
When the tobacco has been cut and gathered into a close house I
pack it in piles, say about 'six feet long and two feet high. It is
allowed to remain in this position until it heats and reaches about
100° Farenheit. This may require from one to three days according to
the particular time of day the tobacco has been cut.
When the pile has reached about the required state of heat above
mentioned, the leaves of the tobacco will be found to be covered with
moisture. The tobacco is then hung up in a horizontal position so as to
2

page_text: allow the leaves to hang apart. To hang the tobacco in a horizontal
position I erect in a close room a scaffolding of scantling, and hori-
zontally on each side of the vertical scantling I nail slips of plank, the
lower edge of each alternate strip being about an inch higher than the
upper edge of the strip on the opposite side of the scantling. The butt
of the tobacco stalks are then placed over the lower strip and the end
brought under the edge of the higher one on the opposite side of the
scantling, and the stalk is left suspended in a horizontal position and the
leaves hang vertically and separated.

page_text: position until the leaf has assumed the proper color and flavor, and then
completing the drying.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Darius Culp, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of March, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy- 5
Witnesscs,
JNO. L. BOONE.
W. L. HoOVER.
JAMES DARIUS OULP. (L.S.)