GB2025753A

GB2025753A - Cigarette Extinguisher

Info

Publication number: GB2025753A
Application number: GB7849489A
Authority: GB
Original assignee: KAIHSIANG HO; PING HSIANG HO
Current assignee: KAIHSIANG HO; PING HSIANG HO
Priority date: 1978-06-29
Filing date: 1978-12-20
Publication date: 1980-01-30

Abstract

To permit efficient extinguishing of a burning stub of a cigarette or a cigarette-like product, an extinguisher in the form of a non-burnable element, such as a tube 3 of aluminium foil is provided to encircle a portion of combustible portion 2 of the cigarette, said tube 3 being slidable along the cigarette to surround the burning part thereof so as to exclude air from said burning part and mask the latter from contact with any combustible material onto which the cigarette may be discarded. In a modification, the tube 3 is fixed adjacent one end (which is the filter end when the cigarette is a filter cigarette) to provide for predetermined extinguishing of the cigarette when it has been substantially finished. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Cigarette Extinguisher This invention relates to a cigarette extinguisher, that is to say an extinguisher for extinguishing the burning part of a cigarette, or of a cigarette-like product, such as a cigar, cigarillo or cheroot.

Burning cigarette butts, carelessly discarded, may cause fire which can tead to substantial injury to life and damage to property. It is therefore desirable to provide means which enables burning cigarette butts to be disposed of safely. An object of the present invention is to provide a solution to this problem and therefore prevent a great deal of serious damage from being caused by such carelessly discarded burning butts.

With this object in view, the present invention provides an extinguisher, for extinguishing a burning cigarette, comprising a non-burning element which encircles a portion of a cigarette and is adapted to extinguish the burning part of the cigarette.

Preferably the non-burning element is a tube, made for instance of aluminium-foil, and of a length for example, about twice the length of the average burning part of a cigarette. If the tube is positioned at or adjacent the filter-tipend of a filter cigarette, this provides for predetermined extinguishing of the cigarette when the burning part of the cigarette reaches the tube.

For extinguishing a cigarette which has not burnt up to a predetermined extinguishing location, the arrangement may be such that the tube may be slidable along the cigarette so that it can be moved to a position encircling the burning part thereof, whereupon the cigarette will be extinguished in a few seconds.

It is well known that, when contacted by some thing favouring ignition, combustibles can easily become ignited. Therefore, if a burning cigarette butt is thrown onto combustible material it is easy for this to cause said combustible material to be set on fire, since such a butt will burn for a considerable period, for example from five to nine minutes, depending upon the availability of air.

With the arrangement in accordance with the present invention, if the burning part of the cigarette is at least partly surrounded by the nonburning element, e.g. a cylindrical tube made of aluminium foil, this element functions as a mask and both obstructs air from getting access to the burning part of the cigarette, and separates any adjacent or nearby combustible material from the burning part of the cigarette. Therefore, if a burning cigarette butt of the present invention is thrown into combustible material, it will still be extinguished within a short time, for instance from 9 to 12 seconds, as aforementioned, and ignition of the combustible material is avoided.

If one discards a cigarette butt in an ash-tray, one usually needs to use some force to stub out the cigarette butt and this results in soiling of the ash-tray and there is the possibiiity of burning one's fingers. With the use of the present invention these disadvantages are minimised, and the ash-tray remains relatively clean.

Furthermore, with the use of the present invention a smoler is abie to extinguish a cigarette, when so desired, simply by moving the nonburning element so that it covers or encloses the burning part of the cigarette. The presence of the non-burning element, e.g. in the form of a tube, on the cigarette in accordance with the invention, does not affect the basic handling or picking up of the same, since the tube remains in place unless it is moved by force. Thus, the tube influences neither the quality of the cigarette itself nor the habit of one's smoking. If the tube is located at or adjacent one end of the cigarette or, in the case of a filter cigarette at or adjacent the filter-tip thereof, it will serve to extinguish the cigarette automatically when the burning part of the cigarette reaches the tube.This can then serve to prevent a heavy smoker from smoking the cigarette right up to the final part of the tobacco or right up to the filter, where most of the nicotine remains, and reduces the nicotine effect of smoking that harms one's health. The invention will be described further, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawing, in which Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a cigarette conforming to the present invention; Fig. 2 is a view comparable with Fig. 1 illustrating how the extinguisher may be movable; Fig. 3 is a view corresponding to Fig. 2 and showing the extinguisher in operation at an intermediate position along the length of the cigarette; and Fig. 4 is a view comparable with Fig. 3 but showing the extinguisher in operation and providing for predetermined automatic extinguishing.

In the illustrated embodiments of the arrangement of the invention, a cigarette comprises a combustible portion 2 consisting, in conventional manner of,a tobacco-filled paper tube, and a filter tip 1. Provided on the combustible portion 2 is a non-burning element which is in the form of a cylindrical tube 3 made, for example, of aluminium-foil and which may be of the same colour as the paper of the combustible portion 2 of the cigarette. The length of this tube 3 is, for example, about 1 7 mm, being about twice the average length of the burning part which will be present on the cigarette when it is lit and smoked.The circumference of the tube 3 is slightly larger, e.g. 2 to 3 mm larger, than that of the combustible portion of the cigarette, so as to have an overlap which can be glued to enable its basic foil strip to be formed into the tube extending around the cigarette.

There are two ways of utilizing the extinguisher of the present invention. In one way the extinguisher is a slidable tube 3 (Fig. 2), that is one which can be moved along the cigarette, as may be desired by the user, to cover the burning part of the cigarette and therefore extinguish it in a few seconds. In the other way, the extinguisher is fixed (Fig. 1), that is, the tube is located adjacent one end of the cigarette, which end will of course be the filter tip end when the cigarette is a filter-tip cigarette, using for instance a little adhesive, so that the cigarette butt will be extinguished automatically when the burning part of thepcombustible portion of the cigarette reaches and becomes surrounded by the tube 3.

According to test results using the arrangement of the present invention, it takes only from 9 to 1 2 seconds to extinguish the cigarette. Thus with the arrangement of the invention the time involved in extinguishing the cigarette is only from one thirty-third to one fortyfifth of the time involved with a conventional cigarette. The extinguisher serves, of course, to separate both air and any adjacent combustible material from the burning part of the cigarette butt. Therefore, with the use of the present invention, the risk of fire from carelesslydiscarded burning cigarette butts is substantially obviated.

The invention is not confined to the precise details of the foregoing examples and variations may be made thereto. Naturally it can be applied equally well to the illustrated filter-type cigarettes and to non-filter or plain cigarettes. Further, of course, it can be applied to comparable cigarettelike products, such as cigars, cigarillos and cheroots, Although the specificaly-illustrated form of the extinguisher is a substantially cylindrical aluminium fdil tube, it can, of course, be of other non-combustible materials, such as tin foil or tin sheet metal, and its shape and configuration can be other than cylindrical; for instance it could be of polygonal tubular form.

Claims

1. An extinguisher, for extinguishing a burning cigarette, comprising a non-burning element which encircles a portion of a cigarette and is adapted to extinguish the burning part of the cigarette.

2. An extinguisher as claimed in claim 1 wherein said non-burning element is a tube.

3. An extinguisher as claimed in claim 1 or 2 wherein said non-burning element comprises aluminium foil.

4. An extinguisher as claimed in claims 1, 2 or 3 wherein said non-burning element is slidable along the cigarette.

5. An extinguisher as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3 wherein said non-burning element Is located adjacent one end of the cigarette to provide for predetermined extinguishing of the cigarette.

6. An extinguisher for extinguishing a burning cigarette substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in Figs. 1 and 4 or in Figs. 2 and 3 of the accompanying drawing.