US2003690A - Tobacco product - Google Patents

Description

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Patented June 4, 1935 UNIT o STATES TOBACCO PRODUCT Lucy 0. Lawton,

Portchester, N. Y.

No Drawing. Application March 28, 1933, Serial No. 663,173

8 Claims.

This application is a continuation in part of my copending application Serial No. 612,637, filed May 20, 1932.

This inventionrelates to improvements in tobacco products and more particularly to the treatment of smoking tobacco to decrease or eliminate its irritating effects on the nose and throat membranes of the user.

A general object of the invention is to provide a smoking tobacco product which in use produces smoke which is substantially free from harmful and/or incomplete combustion products which are irritating to the membranes of the nose and throat of the user.

A more specific object of the invention is to provide a smoking tobacco product to which is added a material or mixture of materials of the class hereinafter disclosed which, during smoking, insures relatively complete elimination of such products of combustion from the smoke.

Other objects of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part appear hereinafter.

The invention accordingly comprises a product possessing the features, properties, and the relation of components which will be exemplified in the product hereinafter described and the scope of the application of which will be indicated in the claims.

It is well known that under usual conditions tobacco smoke from a cigarette, pipe, or the like, contains harmful amounts of products of combustion, including volatile products either formed or freed from the tobacco during smoking, which are irritating to the delicate membranes of the nose and throat of the smoker. As examples of such products, there may be mentioned ammonia, formic acid, furfuraldehyde, carbon monoxide, acrolein and alkaloid bases of the pyridine type. For example, I have found that the smoke drawn from an ordinary cigarette during smoking contains, per gram of cigarette, as much as 0.0005 gram of ammonia and 0.003 gram of aldehyde, expressed as formaldehyde. With the possible exception of ammonia, the presence of these products in the smoke seems to be intimately connected with the rate and completeness of combustion of the particular tobacco used in the cigarette.

It is also known that tobaccos from various regions differ in their rate and extent of combustibility, and Haley and Olson (c. f. Science, July 5, 1929, p. 1'?) have found potassium carbonate and magnetic iron oxide in the ash of naturally mild tobacco. These inorganic constituents in the ash resulted from the combustion of naturally occurring combinations of these metals in the tobacco plant, but prior to the present invention, as far as I am aware, no means has been known for accurately controlling the combustion to reduce the aforesaid irritating substances.

In accordance with the principles of the present invention, I have found that by artificial incorporation into the tobacco, from which the cigarette or the like is made, of certain special iron oxides or materials from which such oxides are formed by the heating during the smoking of a tobacco or by equivalent pretreatment such as heating, a substantial elimination of the aforesaid irritating products can be accomplished with the result that the smoke from the tobacco is much less irritating on the delicate membranes of the nose and throat.

I have found that such oxides as the active oxides originally prepared by Oskar Baudisch, and which possess certain biological catalytic properties, as well as certain physical and chemical properties which distinguish them from the ordinary oxides known to chemical literature, are effective in the elimination of the irritating products of combustion in the preparation of my novel product. These oxides are referred to by Baudisch as active or gamma oxide hydrates, and a few of the methods of preparation which he has advocated are shown in:

1. Science, October 2, 1925, page 311;

2. German Patent No. 531,082 of August 4, 1931; and

3. Journal of American Chemical Society, March 1932, page 943.

I have found that at the present time these oxides of Baudisch are unstable and that their cost is more or less prohibitive for the use contemplated. I have found, however, that even better results can be obtained by the use of commercial iron pigments of the hydrated mixed ferrous-, ferric-oxide type, such as, for example, the pigments known as Mapico Brown A and Mapico Brown B, sold by Magnetic Pigments Company of Trenton, New Jersey, and consisting of mixtures of 1% to 1 /2% ferrous oxide, 12% to 17% of water of hydration and the remainder ferric oxide.

While the theory of action of these compounds is unnecessary to a proper understanding of the manner in which the present invention is to be carried out, I believe at the present time that these materials have a three-fold action as follows:

(a) As the water of hydration is driven ofi, it

assists in fixing the in the smoke;

(b) As the cigarette burns, the heated oxide gives up its oxygen, at least in part, thereby effecting a more complete combustion of the tobacco and substantially reducing the incomplete combustion products of the smoke, such as aldehydes, formic acid, acrolein, carbon monoxide and the like; V

(c) The iron thus released from the oxide combines with otherwise volatile pyridine bases and nicotine derivatives, withholding them from the smoke at least long enough to prevent their being entrained therein.

' Thus, generally, therefore, the present invention includes the provision insmoking tobacco of a material giving up omgen to insure relatively complete combustion, a material giving up water of hydration to assist in fixing the ammonia, and a metallic constituent acting to fix the alkaloid bases of the pyridine type; and I consider as being within the scope of my invention all materials which accomplish these results collectively. Considered in its other aspects the invention also includes the provision in smoking tobacco of a material which, upon smoking, will form a metallic element acting to fix the alkaloid bases such as pyridine, for example suitable compounds of iron, cobalt, nickel and the like. Also, the invention includes the provision in smoking tobacco of a material carrying a fixed source of moisture which, upon smoking, will be released to provide free moisture which will act to fix the ammonia, particularly fiocculent oxide hydrates of metals such as aluminum hydroxide and the hydrated oxides of the metals aforesaid.

ammonia released or formed While the above mentioned iron oxide hydrates are, as indicated, particularly suitable for use in the preparation of my product, I wish it to be understood that I am not confining myself to the use of such iron oxide hydrates alone, or to the use of inorganic material, as I may use any suitable inorganic-organic compound, the organic part of the molecule of which acts as a stearic hindrance preserving the particular active physical-chemical property (lattice structure) of the inorganic oxide formed when the organic part of the molecule is burned off. As an example of this, I might mention particularly the compound obtained by reacting on ferrous chloride with pyridine, as described by Baudisch in the article last cited above.

If it is desired merely to reduce the products of incomplete combustion without providing additional means to assist in fixing the ammonia content of the smoke, I have found it to be unnecessary to use the iron oxides above mentioned in their hydrated form. For example, I have found that if these materials, such as Mapicp Brown A and Mapico Brown 13, are heated at a temperature just suflicient to drive oft the water of hydration, they may still be used with It will be understood, of course, that the materials may be added in proportions in accordance with their activity and the nature of the tobacco treated, and the amount of amelioration of smoke desired. The materials may be added in any convenient manner to disperse them uniformly throughout the tobacco; and, with the oxides, I have found that the smaller the particle size, the greater the covering power per unit of weight, the better the adherence of the material to the tobacco treated, and the more eificient the action thereof.

By way of applying the acid test to my invention, I prepared a cigarette approximately 1.05 grams from a poor grade Burleigh tobacco; and uniformly incorporated therewith approximately 0.05 gram of Mapico Brown B by spraying a suspension of the pigment on the tobacco before rolling.

This cigarette was checked against another cigarette made of the same tobacco, but untreated, and I found that the ammonia was reduced 100%, the pyridine bases 80%, the carbon monoxide 30% and the total aldehydes 83% below that of the untreated tobacco. I

Of course with tobacco ordinarily used in the manufacture of cigarettes, theamount of material incorporated therewith may be considerably less than that indicated in the example, and I have found that with the Baudisch gamma ferric oxide hydrate or Mapico Brown B substantially no irritating products of combustion of the types referred to above are given off when from 1 to 10 milligrams of the oxide are incorporated per cigarette.

It will thus be seen that by means of the principles of the present invention, a novel and useful tobacco product has been developed, and since certain changes may be made in. the above product and different embodiments of the invention could be made without departing from the scope thereof, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

It m also to be understood that the following claims are intended to cover all of the generic and specific features of the invention herein described, and all statements of the scope of the invention which, as a matter of language, might be said to fall therebetween.

Particularly it is to be understood that in said claims, ingredients or compounds recited in the singular are intended to include compatible mixtures of such ingredients wherever the sense per- Havlng described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A new article of manufacture comprising a smoking tobacco having uniformly incorporated therewith an inorganic hydroxide carrying, as a normally fixed source of moisture, water of bydration from which, at the temperatures attained in smoking, the moisture will be freed to fix the ammonia formed during the smoking.

2. A new article of manufacture comprising a smoking tobacco having uniformly incorporated therewith an oxidizing agent'of the mixed ferrous-, ferric-oxide type sufficient to and capable of yielding substantially all of its oxygen to afford more complete combustion of aldehyde, acrolein and other products of incomplete combustion and of forming a metallic element capable of fixing alkaloid bases of the pyridine type formed during the smoking.

' empirical class 5101-" spouses it new icle oi msnufectui'e compr e srno tobacco he or incorporated therewith an oxig agent of the mixed hydioted ferrousionic-oxide type scient to and cop-chic oi yielding substantially all of its oxygen to oiioid more complete combustion of aldehyde, ecioiein end other products oi incomplete comhustion, of yiel water to fix the some, relessed, and oi yielding s, finely divided metallic element cepshle oi filmlrw alkaloid bases of the pyridine time formed during the smoking.

i. A new article of msnuiacture comprising a smo tobacco containing a substance oi the of gas. ieri'ic oxide hyte, and mixed hydrated ien'ous-, ferricoxides such so Mopico Brown A and Mspico Brown B capelole of yiel oxygen to sfioi'd more complete combustion, of fixing the full nlc released end of fixing alkaloid losses of the pyi-e type iced r the smoking.

5. A new article of nuiectui'e com o oin: tobacco con 1: m? it substantially um. i incomted therein s smell emount of on iron organic compound such as the iron com mund oi pyridine which upon hosting will form c poised tel-mus, ieri'ic oxide capolole oi yielding oil of its oxygen as the tobacco is smoked to efioid more complete combustion of a dehyde, ecmlein sud other products of incom plete combustion and cepshle oi yielding metallic ii'oii iii a finely divided stete to fix ollzeloid losses oi the pyiie type during the siting.

6. An cuticle oi manufacture comprising a smoking tobacco having incorporated uniformly therewith on omen z-w- 'vmaterial of the ed ferrous-ferric oxide type in such a finely divided state that it is capable of yielding all its oxygen, when reduced d the smoking process to chord mote complete combustion of acrolein and aldehyde type compounds and of yielding a nascent metallic element capable of fixing the old losses of the mile type during the mug.

7. A new sic of nuiocture comprising a smoking tohucco containing suhstentielly uniformly incorporated therein e small amount of on iron-inorganic compound and an organic mateiiel which will reset therewith to form on iron organic compound of such structure that the physicelwhemicel properties of the inorganic oxide formed es the organic pert oi the molecule is burned E will be preserved in on active state end will set to fix the #3: losses such as pyridine formed '1: A}; the smo 8. A newerticle oi ture comprising a. smoking tohscco Y incorated therewith s commund oi e mtal belonging to the iron group which upon smo will he progressively reduced to role the metallic element 1 in e, finely divided state so as progressively to fix old hoses such es pyrie by reaction with said metsllic element m the toloeoco is smoked.

LUCY Q.