IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CIGARS AND CIGARETTES, AND IN THE APPARATUS FOR EFFECTING THE SAME
Year: 1868

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Jean de Redon and Theodore
Faucheux at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 23rd October 1868.
We, JEAN DE REDON, of 21, Caversham Road, Kentish Town, in
the County of Middlesex, Engineer, and THEODORE FAUCHEUX, of the
same Place, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CIGARS AND CIGARETTES, AND IN THE
APPARATUS FOR EFFECTING THE SAME," to be as follows:-
Our Invention relates to improvements in the manufacture of cigars
and cigarettes, and more particularly in the wrapper or outer covering,
and we dispense with the use of paper in the construction of cigarettes,
and by the means we employ we can use up refuse and other portions
of the tobacco which have hitherto been discarded.
The process of making up the cigars can be either by hand or by the
apparatus which we will describe. We use two sorts of covering, first,
we take a leaf of tobacco and extract from it the stalk and centre rib or
fibre, cut it rectangular the length of the cigar or cigarette, lay it flat on
the board after described, and gum, or paste, or apply other suitable
adhesive material to the edges. We prepare the tobacco to form the

page_text: interior of the cigar much in the same manner as in making the ordinary
paper cigarettes. We roll this in the apparatus between the two boards
as after explained, and when it arrives at the open wrapper the latter
curls itself round the tobacco, and the overlapping edge fastens itself
along the surface. This will make a very elegant cigarette, but in order
to give strength and rigidity we also make and apply the first coating of
a substance prepared from tobacco, which when manufactured as after
explained partakes the qualities of strong paper. We make this covering
in the following manner:-We take the ribs or fibres and stalks and
other hitherto rejected parts of the tobacco and boil them in water from
4 to 10 hours, according to the quality of the tobacco, adding lime,
caustic soda, or carbonate of soda, according to the quality of tobacco to
When
be operated on; for the stronger tobacco we put more alkali.
drained we wash it thoroughly until all the alkali is removed. The whole
then is to be reduced into a pulp, this pulp is then made into sheets,
just as pulp is converted into paper. Before the sheets are dry they are
cut up to the required lengths for making cigarettes, and used while
damp in the manner as before described; the cigarettes thus completed
are dried and packed. This will form a strong and almost indestructible
cigar. If it be required to make it more pleasing to the eye the cigarettes
can be covered again by the process first before described. In order to
make a cigar in the form and appearance of the ordinary cigar we
prepare the tobacco and place it in the first covering as above described;
we then take a mould, bisected top and bottom, each the form of half a
cigar; we line each mould with a sheet of the above-described prepared
sheet tobacco wrapper in a moist state, and place the cigar between the
two moulds, and subject it to a sharp heavy blow, and the cigar will be
properly moulded to the form required, and when the edges are trimmed
the cigar is dried and packed.
There are several known hand machines for making paper cigarettes
which are applicable to our process of covering. We describe a simple
apparatus. It consists of two principal parts, a plane divided by ribs or
beading, according to the length and thickness of the cigar proposed to
be made, forming a bed which can be repeated according to the number
of cigars to be made at once. An upper plane is made to slide along the
top in the direction of the ribs or beading, leaving a space between the
surfaces of the two planes. The upper plane is drawn back and the
tobacco to be operated on is spread out by hand in front of it, the leaf

page_text: forming the covering is placed on the further end of the bottom plane,
and with the edge gummed as above described. By pressing forward
the upper plane a rotatory motion is given to the tobacco, which is
pressed into a cylindrical form, and when it passes over the cover it
picks it up, the cover rolling itself round the tobacco, and the cigar
drops over the end of the lower plane into a box provided for the
purpose.