IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINES FOR MANUFACTURING CIGARS
Year: 1870

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Alexander Melville Clark at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 18th May 1870.—A communication from abroad by the American
Cigar Machine Company, of the City, County, and State of New
York, United States of America.
I, ALEXANDER MELVILLE CLARK, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINES FOR MANUFACTURING CIGARS," to:
be as follows:
This Invention relates to new and useful improvements in machines
for manufacturing cigars, whereby the operation is greatly facilitated,
and it consists, firstly, in a series of rollers readily removable from their
respective spindles or shafts, and, secondly, in a spring, by means of
which the swinging frame is held in position and in a swiveled and an
adjustable follower, and, thirdly, in a header for forming the head or
point of the cigar.
In the accompanying Drawing Figure 1 represents a top view of the
machine; Figure 2 is a vertical cross section of Figure 1 on the lino

page_text: W, W, looking to the left; Figure 3 is a vertical cross section of Figure 1
looking to the right from the line X, X; Figure 4 is a detail of one
of the rollers, showing a mode of making them solid and removable;
Figure 5, is a detail of the adjustable swivel follower; Figure 6 is a
detailed view of a sleeve or tubular roller removable from its mandrel;
Figure 7 is a vertical longitudinal section of Figure 1 on the line Y, Y,
showing the mode of operating one description of header; Figure 8
represents an end view of the machine with a header formed of conical
rollers, showing the cigar rollers in dotted outline; Figure 9 is the top
view of the same, showing longitudinal sections of the cigar rollers.
Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts.
A is the bed plate of the machine to which the. heads B, B¹, are
attached, which support the roller spindles; C represents these rollers.
These rollers are sleeves or tubes which are made to fit on to the spindle
or shaft D. The outer surface of these rollers is made to correspond
with the desired shape or form of the body of the cigar. The head or
conical head of the cigar is formed by another appliance provided for
that purpose at the end of the rollers before mentioned. The head B¹
of the machine is readily removed from the bed plate, so that the sleeve
rollers can be readily slipped from their respective spindles, and other
sleeve rollers put in their place, so that cigars of different sizes, forms,
and lengths may be made in the machine without changing the gear
wheels. These rollers are made in sets or groups, each single roller
corresponds in form and diameter with the other rollers of the set. Any
number of sets or groups may be employed for varying the form and
size of the cigar.
The spindles are revolved by means of gear wheels, as seen in the
Drawing, and the rolls are made to revolve with their respective spindles
by means of coupling pins passing into the spindles.
We do not confine ourselves to any particular device for attaching the
removable roller to the part E, connected with the gear wheel so as to
revolve with it. Another method would be to make the removable
roller a solid piece, as seen in Figure 4; instead of a sleeve on one end,
a journal may be formed, and at the other end a square central
projection, and a corresponding depression or hole in the part E. Or
the arrangement might be reversed, thereby connecting them so that both
would revolve with the wheel gearing, and at the same time the roller
would be removable without disturbing the part E and wheel gearing.

page_text: The part E and journal connected therewith may be made of one piece
of metal. F is the spring, which is attached to the bed plate. A, G.
represents the swinging frame, and H the handle by which the
swinging frame is operated. This frame carries a portion of the rollers,
and is opened or closed for each cigar as the bunch is introduced, and
the finished cigar taken out of the machine. The spring F is so placed
or adjusted that when the handle is thrown up to close the machine a
shoulder I on its side catches over a pin on the side of the handle,
and securely holds the swinging frame in the desired position while
putting the wrapper on the cigar. A slight side pressure on the end of
the spring releases the handle for opening the machine, as seen at m
Figure 1. The portion J of the follower L is swivelled, so that it may
revolve with the bunch or body of the cigar while pressing and keeping
the opposite end of the cigar in the head former. This swivelled
portion J allows the cigar to revolve with less friction than it otherwise
would. The stem K, upon which the swivel J revolves is made
adjustable in the socket portion of the follower L, and held in position
by a set screw for the purpose of varying the length of the follower, in
order that cigars of different lengths may be made in the same machine.
The follower L is not required when cigar bunches are being made in
the machine, therefore it may be held back out of the way and secured
in the head B by a groove near its end, as seen in Figure 5, by means
of a lever M, operating in the groove for the purpose of giving greater
length of space between the rollers to receive the tobacco filling. O is a
spiral spring around the follower which bears against the collar F with a
constant pressure,
and serves to force the follower out when it is relieved
from the small lever M. The rollers are operated by means of a system
of gear wheels on the spindle as represented in the Drawing, the motion
and direction of which is controlled by means of a shifting lever and
clutch.
The operation of the machine is as follows:-The frame of the
meching is set
מנת
ስ ne to be stationary during the oneration The

page_text: .
wrapper is then endwise inserted between the rollers and wound around
the cigar. The sinall conical rollers are employed for forming the head
of the cigar, and do not require to be shifted in the manner that the
header T is when the latter is used in place of a header formed of
conical rollers, so as to allow the wrapper to be wound around the head
end of the cigar, while the smoother Y gives a nice finish to the head
portion of the cigar. The small conical rollers for forming the head
end of a cigar are so arranged that the small point of the rollers come
in contact with the small end of the cigar head, and the large end of
the rollers come in contact with the large part of the head end of the
cigar, thereby causing the small conical rollers and the head end of the
cigar to revolve in unison in all their parts.