Improvements in Cigarettes, and in the Method of and Apparatus for Manufacturing the same.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 6th Mar., 1896-Accepted, 11th Apr., 1896
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Cigarettes, and in the Method of and Apparatus
for Manufacturing the same.
I, JOHN EDWARD EVANS-JACKSON of 45 Holborn Viaduct, London, Engineer
and Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of this invention (communicated
to me by Bernhard Baron, foot of 52nd Street and East River, City, County, and
State of New York, U.S.A. Manufacturer), and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement :-
This invention has for its object to facilitate the manufacture of cigarettes and
especially the molding of the cigarette rod from a constant supply of tobacco, and
to the method and means of making a cigarette rod and cigarette of elliptical cross-
sectional form.
In the accompanying drawings:-
Fig. 1. is a sectional elevation of sufficient of a cigarette machine to illustrate the
improvements in the devices for molding a continuous round cigarette rod.
Fig. 2. is a plan view of the devices shown in Fig. 1.
Fig. 3. is a plan of the bed-plate adjacent to the molding wheels, Fig. 1.
Fig. 4. is an elevation in part section illustrating the construction and arrange-
ment of molding devices for molding the continuous tobacco rod for the manufacture
of cigarettes elliptical in cross-section.
Fig. 4 is a side view of the folding or wrapping tube, of the elliptical cigarette
device.
Fig. 5. is a plan view of the parts shown in Fig. 4.
Fig. 5 is a plan view of the parts shown in Fig. 4.
Fig. 6. is a transverse section on the line 4-4, Fig. 4^.
Fig. 7. is a transverse section on the line 6-6, Fig. 4ª.
Fig. 8. is a transverse section on the line 3-3, Fig. 5.
Fig. 9. is a similar section illustrating the molding wheels with different shaped
grooves from Fig. 8.
Fig. 10. is a perspective view illustrating the improved elliptical cigarette.
Figs. 1. 2, and 3. illustrate the construction of the parts as used for molding a
continuous tobacco rod from a mass of tobacco for the purpose of manufacturing
regular round cigarettes.
It will be understood that certain features of the machine the driving devices,
and so on, are such as are commonly used and need not be described.
Beneath a suitable frame or table turn two rolls 12. 12. carrying a travelling
belt 10. the upper portion of which passes above the table between two guides m.
Two driven shafts 14. carry at their upper ends grooved wheels 13. above the
endless belt 10. In brackets 5. 5. turns a shaft 6. carrying a pulley 17. and
on which swings loosely a frame B. forked at the outer end and carrying a pulley 18.
and around the two pulleys 17, 18, passes a continuous band 16.
The shaft 6. is provided with a gear 7. which is driven in any suitable manner,
and from a feeder Y. (Fig. 4) tobacco is supplied to the upper face of the belt 10.
by which it is carried below the band 16. and then to and between the grooved
molding wheels 13. which mold the continuous stream of tobacco into a solid uniform
continuous tobacco rod.
A plate 15. overlies the wheels 13.. at the point where the tobacco passes

page_text: between the same and is molded, so that the tobacco carried to the wheels is
compressed laterally between the same, and vertically between the lower belt 10
and the plate 15. and to prevent the tobacco from swelling and rising above the
upper surfaces of the wheels 13. before passing beneath the plate 15. it is necessary
to compress the tobacco vertically upon the belt 10 by means of feed rollers,
or the feed band 16. This gradually compresses the tobacco to a thickness say
one-half the thickness of the wheels 13. so that before the tobacco can swell
to a position above the upper surfaces of these wheels it will have passed beneath
the plate 15.
The plate 15. may be supported by any suitable means in proper position
above the wheels 13. but as it is necessary frequently to obtain access to the space
wherein the tobacco is molded, the plate is secured to the projecting end of the
frame B. so that when the frame is swung upward with the band 16. swinging
on the shaft 6. the plate 15. is also lifted. To properly adjust the height of the
pulley 18. the plate is connected to the frame by means of a slotted bracket 8. upon
the plate, through which a screw 9. passes into the frame. By loosening the screw
the end of the frame may be raised or lowered after which the screw may be
tightened to clamp the parts together. To collect the tobacco upon the belt 10 to
the centre of the belt, the guides m. on the table X. have lips . which draw the
line of tobacco upon the belt from the sides towards the centre.
As the continuous rod is molded, it passes to wrapping devices of usual character
and the wrapper is applied and pasted and the rod cut into cigarettes.
The apparatus for making cigarettes elliptical in cross-section is shown in
Figs. 4-9 in which the main features of construction correspond generally to those
shown in Figs. 1, 2, and 3. the grooves in the molding wheels, however, instead of
being semi-circular as in Fig. 1. are V-shaped Fig. 8. or U-shaped as shown in
Fig. 9. for the purpose of molding a solid tobacco rod substantially elliptical in
cross-section.
For many years it has been recognized as desirable that cigarettes should be
elliptical in shape in cross section, as this form fits better between the lips and
avoids the necessity of moistening and flattening the ends of the ordinary round
cigarettes. Heretofore, such cigarettes have been made by hand, as no means of
effectively manufacturing them by machinery has been devised. Such elliptical
cigarettes as made by hand, have, however, proved to be defective in certain
particulars. They are exceedingly expensive so that the use and sale thereof are
comparatively limited; inasmuch as the tobacco filler in the process of hand-
making is first brought to a cylindrical shape and then flattened, the structure is
by the flattening operation more or less broken so that the cigarette will not retain
its form if handled to any great extent, while as the filler is forced longitudinally
into the tubular wrapper after the latter has been pasted, the tobacco does not
closely fill the tube; it can readily be displaced longitudinally by pushing it out of
the tube, and its flattened form is apt to be injured by manipulation in forcing it
lengthwise into the tube.
An elliptical cigarette, having none of the above recited objections is provided
by this improvement by taking a mass of tobacco and molding it directly at a
single operation into a continuous cigarette rod elliptical in cross section and of
the proper desired dimensions, and then also molding or shaping a continuous
travelling wrapping strip into a tube also elliptical in cross-section and retaining
the wrapper and its contained rod under unyielding pressure during the operation
of wrapping, pasting and sealing the wrapper, thereby forming a continuous
cigarette rod elliptical in cross-section which is subsequently divided into proper
length to constitute an elliptical cigarette.
An elliptical cigarette made as above described can at once be distinguished
from the hand-made cigarettes not only by its more regular and finished appearance,
but by the firmness and regularity of the form of the filler which can be recognized
at once by the touch; further by the fact that the tobacco completely fills the
wrapper tube so that it can not be readily forced longitudinally therefrom, and

page_text: also by its improved smoking qualities resulting from the even burning of the
tobacco without any tendency of the fire to run up along one side of the cigarette.
The elliptical cigarette rol is molled by the wheels 13. having V-shaped or
semi-elliptical grooves, Figs. 8 and 9.
After the tobacco rod is compressed to its greatest extent between the proximate
portions of the wheels it passes between the edges of two scraper plates 31, 32,
Fig. 5. which fit closely to the wheels and prevent any portions of the tobacco
from being carried around and away from the rol, which then passes over a
bridge 23. and on to the wrapper strip. Fig. 4. which is carried with a narrower
endless belt 24. into the trough C. of the wrapping device.
In order to make the paper tube or wrapper of an elliptical or approximately
elliptical form, corresponding to that of the rod, or fiiler, the trough C. has a
curved bottom face w. Figs. 6 and 7. the curve being greater or flatter than the
semi-circular curve of the trough of an ordinary cigarette machine, and from one
side of the trough extends an overhanging flange or portion 26. nearly to the
opposite side of the trough, leaving a space s. for the standing edge of the wrapper;
the under face of the flange 26. being curved (but reversely) to the same degree as
the bottom w. of the trough. The opposite edge of the wrapper to the standing
edge is turned in upon the tobacco rod by the flange 26. while the rod is held in
shape under compression, and the standing edge is then carried against the edge of
a paster wheel D. Fig. 5 which is supplied with paste from a suitable reservoir Z.
and which applies a line of paste to the said edge, which latter edge is then turned
down by a folder wheel E. on to the opposite inturned edge of the strip which is
thus formed into a tube. The said tube with its tobacco rod or filler is then
carried along the -trough beneath an overhanging flange 27. which slightly com-
presses the cigarette rod and holds the parts in place until the paste has thoroughly
set and dried when the rod will pass out of the trough having a permanent ellip-
tical shape in cross section. Suitable cutting devices, not necessary to be here
shown, then sever the rod into cigarettes of proper length.
It is preferable to make use of a short curved plate 30. suspended by a
bracket 29. in such a position as to press upon the tobacco rod, keeping it
condensed and in elliptical shape as it enters the trough and before one side of the
wrapper is turned down, the said side of the wrapper passing into the trough then
being turned down upon the top of the plate 30, and under the flange 26.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. As a new article of manufacture a cigarette consisting of a condensed and
solidified mass of tobacco forming a filler substantially elliptical in cross-section
confined within and tightly fitting an elliptical wrapping tube, substantially as
described.
2. As a new article of manufacture a continuous cigarette rod consisting of a
solidified and condensed mass of tobacco forming a continuous filler substantially
elliptical in cross-section confined within and tightly fitting a continuous elliptical
wrapping tube, substantially as described.
Dated this 6th day of March 1896
J. E. EVANS-JACKSON & Co.,
Agents for the Applicant.