US1948593A - Cigarette package - Google Patents

Description

Feb. 27, 1934-. PATTER'SON 1,948,593

CIGARETTE PACKAGE Filed May 14 1931 1 4 FIG. 2 l

ATTORN EY Patented Feb. 27, 1934 1,948,593 CIGARETTE PACKAGE Morehead Patterson, New York, N. Y., assignor to American Machine & Foundry Company, a corporation of New Jersey Application May 14, 1931. Serial No. 537,450

' 9 Claims.

This invention relates to article packages, and more particularly to a cigarette package having an outer wrapping of tough flexible material such as cellulose hydrate or cellophane. An outer wrapper of this nature when properly sealed is air tight and provides protection against moisture and odor and adds to the appearance of the package. n the other hand this wrapping has the disadvantage-that, being tough it is difficult to tear 0 open, and. even more diflicult to tear along desired lines to make an opening at one end so'that cigarettes can be extracted singly or a few at a time while having the top end of the package partiall closed to retain the remaining cigarettes.

It is the main object of the present invention to remedy this difiiculty and to produce a cigarette package having an outer wrapping of this nature so fashioned that the cellophane or other material will readily tear along the lines desired to make a neat opening near one corner of the package. Another object is to do this without inter- To this end advantage is taken of a peculiarity of cellophane and like tough cellulosic materials, which is that though it is very difficult to tear these materials from a smooth edge they tearwith great readiness when the edge from which the tear'is made is even slightly nicked, notched "or otherwise broken. Such nicks may be very shallow so that they do not in any way decrease the effect of an overlapping seam portion'and may, in

fact be so slight as to be almost invisible without interfering with their effectiveness.

With these and other objects not specifically mentioned in view, the invention consists in certain constructions and combinations which will hereinafter be fully describe-d and then specifically set forth in the claims hereunto appended. In the accompanying drawing in which like characters of reference indicate the same or like parts, Fig.'1 is a view in perspective of one form of applicants invention; Fig. 2 is a plan view partly broken away of the wrapper blank utilized in Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a perspective view of another form carrying out the invention; Fig. 4 illustrates the blank utilized in Fig. 3; Fig. 5 is a perspective view of a third form of the invention; and Fig. 6 illustrates the blank employed in Fig. 5.

In carrying the invention into effect there is provided a package having an, outer wrapper with overlapping sealed flaps at one of its ends said wrapper being provided with breaks in the edges of said flaps atsaid ends to control 'the tearing of the wrapper to open a portion only of the package as for instance to produce a square opening of the end adjacent the corner of a cigarette package so that the cigarettes can be ejected a few at a time. Preferably these breaks extend inwardly from the edge of the flap a distance less than the width of the sealed overlap so that air tight sealing is not interfered with.

Referring now to the drawing a cigarette package, for example, of generally rectangular form having broad and narrow side faces is illustrated. This package is ordinarily provided with a conventional inner wrapping of foil, and paper unsealed at one end, and is provided with an outer wrapping 10 of transparent cellulosic material,

preferably water proof, such as cellophane hav-' ing a water proof coating. This outer wrapping has sealed edges forming a seam 11 extending along one side face and over a corner onto the end face and also having overlapping flaps 12 and 13 at said end face, is provided with means for facilitating opening of a predetermined portion of the end. These means consist in the form shown in Fig. 1 of slits or nicks 14 and 15 inthe overlapping flaps and nicks l7 and 18 to the side of said flaps which may also be provided in the flaps at positions spaced from the nicks 14 and 15 but are preferably formed as shown in Fig. 1 in the side seam adjacent the corner of the package.' It will be noted thatthese slits extend in from the edge of the cellophane outer wrapper a distance less than ,thewidth of the glued or otherwise formedsealed portion 19, so that no leakage is caused by the slits as would be the case if the wrapper were weakened by perforation.

In many populartypes of packages particularly cigarette packages, the glue stripe does not extend to the edge of the flap. advantage of in the present package to provide a sub flap 12a which may be gripped with the ,fingers. v Accordingly, a package having a wrapper formed in accordance with the present invention is opened as follows. The sub-flap 12a is grasped and pulled back. In accordance with the observed properties of cellophane and similar tough transparent cellulosic materials the slit or in fact any nick or break in the smooth edge of the material will permit the material to be torn back to the rear corner 20 of the package or beyond. The material can then be readily torn along or below the corner 20 to the side face having the seam 11.

Since the tear isonly located generally by the nick in the flap 12 and'in actual practice it is most convenient to tear the package around the end along the line 25 of Fig. 5 at varying distances from said end; hence the tear line may strike the seam 11 at any point at its upper This is taken end. If only one nick at the upper corner is provided it has been found in practice that when the tear line is some distance therefrom the cellophane will open up along the paste line or distort the package before it will erase the seam 11. By means of a series of closely spaced nicks 17 and 18 in the overlapping and underlying edges respectively of the seam 11 the tear line wherever it crosses the seam will be close to a nick and thus will easily start tearing the cellophane across the seam in accordance with the peculiarity of this and similar materials already noted. Thus a neat opening at one corner of the package will be provided.

In some types of packages the glue extends all the way to the edge of the flaps 12 and 13 or so nearly to the edge that no finger hold is provided for making the package easy opening.

Under these circumstances a tongue 23 is provided adjacent one edge of which extends the nick 14. By pulling back this tongue the package may be opened as the package illustrated in Fig. 1 was opened by means of the sub-flaps.

In the form shown in Fig. 5, notches 24 are substituted for nicks, notches having been found desirable for some purposes because more visible thus indicating to the user where to tear.

As shown in Figs. 1, 3 and 5 the breaks such as the nick 14 and the notch 24 are provided centrally of the flaps 12 and 13 so that either half of the end may be opened, though other arrangements may be found desirable and are contemplated. The several blanks illustrated in Figs. 2, 4 and 6 each illustrate a way of providing the breaks referred to without wasting any material since in no instance is any material thrown away with the exception, of that from the notch 24 while at the same time as shown the blanks are suited to feeding in strip form and cutting from the strip so that these packages may be readily adapted to wrapping on present wrapping machines in which the wrapping material is fed in continuous strip form.

It will be seen from the foregoing thata wrapping has been provided which overcomes one of the main objections to the use of cellophane and like materials in packages of this kind, namely the difficulty of tearing open the package and stiff messy interfering wrinkled portions that result when it is finally torn open in the old way.

I claim:

1. A rectangular cigarette package with narrow and broad side faces having an outer wrapper folded about the package with an overlapping seam extending along one narrowside face and with overlapping sealed flaps at the end face of the package, and means for facilitating easy opening of a predetermined portion of the outer wrapper, said means comprising nicks for starting tears in the edge portions of the overlapping flaps and other spaced nicks in the edge portions only of the wrapper along the side seam near the end face of the package.

2. A rectangular cigarette package with narrow and broad side faces having an outer cellophane wrapper folded about the package with an overlapping seam extending along one narrow side face and with overlapping sealed flaps at the end face of the package, and means for facilitating easy opening of a predetermined portion of the outer wrapper, said means comprising breaks for starting tears in the edge portions of the overlapping flaps and other breaks in the edge portions of the cellophane wrapper near the point where the side seam joins the end face of the package, said breaks in the seam edge extending inwardly from the edge a distance less than overlap ofthe seam.

3. A rectangular cigarette, package having narrow and broad side faces and having an inner unsealed wrapper and an outer completely sealed wrapper the outer wrapper being arranged with overlapping sealed edges extending lengthwise of one end face and down each narrow side face the overlapping edge portions only of said outer wrapper being provided with shallow nicks at an end face overlying the unsealed portion of the inner wrapper intermediate the juncture of said end face with the narrow side portions and near said juncture on one of the side faces, the portions of said outer wrapper other than the overlapping portions beingunbroken and unweakened.

4. A rectangular package having an outer wrapper of water proof cellophane, said wrapper having sealed overlapping edges forming a side seam across which it is desired to tear the cellophane without opening the seam or distorting the wrapper, and a plurality of closely spaced shallow slits extending inwardly from each of said edges so that at least one slit in each edge will be in a position approximately at the tear line to facilitate tearing across the seam.

5. A package having a wrapper with overlapping closure fiaps at one end and a seam formed by overlapping edges of the wrapper extending along one side, at least one of said flaps and both of said overlapping edge portions having weakened portions for starting tears inwardly from the edges thereof, said weakened portions being spaced along the length of. the overlapping portions to'provide a weakened portion in position to restart a tear across the seam wherever a tear happens to strike said seam.

6. The combination with a package having overlapping portions forming a seam, of means for facilitating tearing open of a desired portion of the package along an irregular line crossing the seam, said means comprising a series of spaced weakened locations along the overlapping portions forming the seam for restarting the tear across that seam.

7. A package having a wrapper with overlapping closure fiaps at one end and a seam formed by overlapping edges of the wrapper extending along one side, at least one of said flaps and both of said overlapping edge portions having a weakened area in the overlapping portion only, to facilitate tearing across both the closure formed by the flaps and the seam.

8. The combination with a package having overlapping portions forming a seam, of means wrapper, of means for facilitating tearing open a desired portion of the package along an irregular line crossing a seam, comprising a series of breaks along both edges forming the seam.

MOREHEAD PATTERSON.

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