IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CIGARS AND CIGARETTES
Year: 1882

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Stephen Wells Wood at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 15th August 1882.
STEPHEN WELLS WOOD, of Cornwall, New York, United States of America,
Civil Engineer
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CIGARS AND
CIGARETTES "
The said Improvements relate to composite sheets or leaves, preferably made of
the stems and refuse leaves of tobacco and more especially designed for wrappers,
but may be used for the filling of cigars and cigarettes.
The tobacco stems cut into convenient pieces are first softened in water and
then disintegrated or reduced to pulp. The reduction may be advantageously
effected by beating or pulping engines such as are used in pulping rags for the
manufacture of paper. The beating of the mass is continued until the fibre is
sufficiently disintegrated to produce pulp of the required consistency. This pulp
is then placed in vats and is pumped therefrom, in sufficient quantities, upon the
wire cloth of a paper machine or other perforated surface which will allow the
drainage of the pulp, or the water may be extracted from the pulp by pressure.
This drained pulp is passed between rollers and afterwards transferred to a felt web
and again passed between rollers thereby uniting and compressing the pulp into
sheets or leaves of uniform thickness.
The desired colour and flavour is given to these sheets or leaves by incorporating
with them or with the pulp finely divided leaves of tobacco in sufficient quantities
for the purpose. The refuse natural leaves reduced to a finely divided condition
may be spread over the surface or surfaces of said sheets or leaves or incorporated
with the same by pressure and absorption, so that the composite sheets or leaves
will closely resemble in colour and flavour the natural leaves of tobacco. The
tobacco stems may be reduced to a pulp and when partially dried be mixed with
finely divided tobacco leaves and this composition be spread evenly upon the wire
cloth or felt web, the mass being sufficiently dampened to cause the same to adhere
under suitable pressure and then formed into composite sheets or leaves which will
possess throughout the desired tobacco colour and flavour. A similar result may
be obtained by reducing the tobacco stems and refuse leaves separately to a pulp

page_text: and then pumping first a sufficient quantity of the stem pulp upon the wire cloth
to form the body of the composite sheet or leaves and afterwards the requisite
quantity of leaf pulp to give the desired colour and flavour, or the two pulps may
be united, mixed or commingled before or at the time of pumping the same upon
the wire cloth and the composite sheets or leaves be completed as herein before
stated.
The pulp for the body of the composite sheets or leaves may be made wholly or
partially of other substances and the desired tobacco colour and flavour be given
the pulp or sheets by means of said tobacco leaves, but tobacco stems are
inexpensive and otherwise preferable. The desired colour and flavour can only
be obtained from tobacco, and the refuse portion of the leaves are used for economy.
These composite sheets or leaves must be made elastic or yielding like the
natural leaves of tobacco to make them suitable for cigar wrappers and this
elasticity or yielding quality is given by wrinkling, creasing or contracting the
sheets or leaves by rollers or other suitable means.
The sheets or leaves thus prepared may be readily cut into the exact shape
required for the wrappers of cigars and cigarettes and the manufacture of the same
be thereby expedited. The fillings made of these composite leaves are prepared
and the manufacture of cigars and cigarettes completed in the same manner as
when these articles are made of the natural leaves of tobacco.