GB322799A - Improvement in method of and apparatus for treating manufactured cigars and the like - Google Patents

Abstract

322,799. Hopkins, N. M. June 15, 1928. Conditioning cigars and the like and tobacco. - Cigars, cheroots, and the like are treated to sterilize them and to improve the keeping and smoking qualities by releasing heat energy within the cigar &c., to a degree sufficient to raise the temperature of substantially the whole cigar above the sterilization point of insect organisms, germs, or the spores of must or mould present in the tobacco; or by introducing within the cigar a chemical sterilizing agent such as gaseous hydrocyanic acid or formaldehyde, or carbon disulphide vapour, which is afterwards swept out by an air current. Figs. 2, 4 and 10 show an apparatus for treating a number of cigars with superheated steam, each cigar being impaled upon a hollow needle which injects steam at a temperature between 225‹ and 325‹ F. for from 1 to 5 minutes. Steam from a boiler 134, Fig. 10, passes directly or through a superheating coil 139 and a pipe 83 to a hollow, revolving turntable 10 provided with cigar receiving tubes 11. An electric superheater 127 having a winding of nichrome wire may be provided on the pipe 83, and the steam may be kept superheated in the turntable and the tubes 11 by an auxiliary heater 18. The turntable may also be supplied by a rotary pump 128 and a pipe 85 with refrigerated air, gaseous hydrocyanic acid or formaldehyde, or the vapour of carbon disulphide. The turntable is intermittently revolved about its hub 13 by a pawl 14 on a radial arm 16 connected to a crank-pin 66 on a worm wheel 20 driven from a motor 24. Each cigar is dropped through a funnel 31 into a rotating tube 26 driven from the motor 24 by means of gearing 25 and provided with spring fingers 39 for gripping the cigar. The cigar is forced downwards by a resilient plunger 41 rotatable on the end of the rod 36 of a piston in a cylinder 35, which is supplied with compressed air by a rotary pump 76 and is provided with a cam-actuated slide valve. The lower end of the cigar is received by a funnel 32 sliding upon the hollow injecting needle 94, Figs. 4 and 5, which has a drill point 113 for piercing the cigar and one or more openings 96 or a slot for the escape of the steam &c., which passes along the interior of the cigar and out through the space between the cigar and the tube 11. When each tube 11 is brought by the rotation of the turntable into the ejecting position, an air supply nozzle, actuated by an electromagnet, engages an opening 12 in the tube and compressed air is admitted beneath a piston 102 to eject the cigar, which is guided on to a conveyer belt or other delivering means. For treating in addition a bale of tobacco, the bale 141, Fig. 10, is enclosed in a chamber 142 having an outlet 144 leading to condensing or other recovery plant for nicotine &c. and a treating tube 145 connected to the steam pipe 83. In a modification, the cigars &c. are heated electrically, the piercing needle and the tube 11 being insulated from each other and connected to the terminals of a high-potential high-frequency induction coil. It is stated that ozone, oxides of nitrogen, and other products may be formed by the electric discharge.