US2639715A - Mouthpiece cigarette - Google Patents

Description

y 1953 D. W. MOLINS MOUTHPIECE CIGARETTE Filed Dec. 15, 1950 Patented May 26, 1953 MOUTHPIECE CIGARETTE Desmond Walter Molins, Deptford, London, England, assignor t Molins Machine Company Limited, London, England, a British company Application December 15, 1950, Serial No. 200,925 In Great Britain September 22, 1949 1 Claim. (01. 131- This invention concerns improvements in or relating to mouthpiece cigarettes. The expres sion mouthpiece cigarette means a cigarette having at one end a mouthpiece which may for example comprise a hollow tube or a plug of filtering or flavouring material. All such mouthpieces are referred to hereinafter for convenience as stubs.

Frequently in the manufacture of mouthpiece cigarettes, particularly when the cigarettes are manufactured by enclosing alternate lengths of unwrapped tobacco and stubs in a cigarette paper tube. bits of tobacco lie between the surface of the stub and the cigarette paper. Where it is not desired to have an outer covering, such as a cork tip or plain tip, on the outside of the cigarette paper tube, the cigarettes tend to have an untidy appearance, due to the fact that portions of tobacco lying between the stub and the cigarette paper show through the cigarette paper and are clearly noticeable against the-light background of the stub, which is usually white.

According to the invention there is provided a mouthpiece cigarette, wherein the curved surface of the stub is so coloured, as more specifically defined later, that it is diflicult to distinguish particles of tobacco which may lie between the stub and the paper wrapper.

It should be understood that the colour selected for the curved surface of the stub for the purpose of disguising tobacco particles "depends not only on the colour of the tobacco, but also on the thickness and translucence of the cigarette paper wrapper. The thinner and more translucent the paper, the closer the colour chosen would haveto approximate to the colour of tobacco. With less translucent paper, the colour of the stub can differ more widely from the colour of the tobacco. Accordingly the colour chosen to render tobacco particles diflicult to distinguish by the eye must depend on the particular facts in each case. The curved surface of the stub need not have a plain or single colour, mottling or patterning might evenbe employed in suitable cases. With a suitably translucent cigarette paper wrapper, the stub surface may have a base colour which would show through the paper in a different way to the body of the tobacco. In order to disguise particles of tobacco lying between the stub and the cigarette paper the stub could be mottled so that the tobacco particles would be difficult to distinguish from the dark mottling.

Furthermore, in the manufacture of filter tip cigarettes variations injthe length of the stub frequentlyoccur and these variations may be 2' apparent to the eye, because of the contrast between the .way in which the white stubs and the tobacco portions show through the paper wrapper (that is of course when there is no cork tip or other tip). When a number of cigarettes having stubs of different lengths are packed in a cigarette packet, the cigarettes with the white stubs showing distinctly through the paper, especially when bits of tobacco can be seen between the stubs and the paper wrapper, is generally untidy and unsatisfactory.

The untidy appearance due to both causes hereinbefore mentioned, namely particles of tobacco showing through the paper wrapper around the stub and the variation in length of the stubs are avoided by means of the invention by employing stubs whose curved surface is so coloured that when the stub is enclosed in the cigarette paper wrapper the colour of vthe stub as seen through the cigarette paper appears to be substantially the same as .thatof the tobacco contained in the cigarette. When a suitable colouring is employedfor the surface of the stub it becomes almost impossible or extremely difficult to the normal eye to difierentiate by inspection alone between the stub section of the cigarette and the tobaccosection, except by looking at the ends of the cigarette, and any fragments of tobaccolying between thecurved surface of the stub and the cigarette wrapper become almost or completely'unnoticeable, due to the lack of contrast between the colouring of the tobacco fragments and the background colour of the stubs. In fact, looking at the cigarette from the side, that is to say without looking at its ends, the cigarette has the appearance of an ordinary plain cigarette, and imperfections in manufacture due to variations in length of the stubs and due to particles of tobacco lying between the stub and cigarette paper wrapper are extremely difiicult to detect.

Such cigarettes are, of course, intended to have no tip, that is to say, no outer tip of cork, gold paint, or what is often called an ivory tip, and in order to distinguish at which end the stub is located, this may be indicated by printing a narrow encircling band at the end of the cigarette, in addition to any other printing which a manufacturer may wish to place on the cigarette, such as the brand name or the like.

Inorder further to assist in making the stub end distinguishable from the tobacco end, the body of the stub is made of a material whose colouring is made distinctive from the colouring of the'tobacco. Thus if the stub is made of white cotton wool or white crepe paper it is easy to distinguish, by looking endwise at the cigarette, at which end the stub is. The body of the stub should thus have a colour which is readily distinguishable from the colour of tobacco, but the surface of the stub which is in contact with the paper wrapper so; coloured that when seen through the particular cigarette paper wrapper employed is not readily distinguishable from that of the tobacco as seen through that particular cigarette paper.

In general, the material from which the stub is made is white or light coloured (e. g: from white to deep cream) but the outer layer thereof is coloured. As the most usual practice is to enclose a stub of crepe paper or the. like in: a paper wrapper, the wrapper is coloured. For this purpose the stub material which consists of, a. mass of crepe paper or other suitable material is bunched or folded and compressed into a suitable shape, for-example, substantially cylindrical and enclosed in a'wrapper of cigarette paper which is suitably coloured and the stub thereafter cut from the resulting rod. A suitable machine for making a continuous mouthpiece rod is shown in British patent specification No. 462,540 and this machine may be furnished with" reels of coloured paper, or white cigarette paper may be stained orcoloured as it passestowards' the rod forming devices of' the machine;

It is, however, possible to coloura stub according-to the inventionin suchamanner that while bits oftobacco lying between the wrapper and thestub are disguised-or diflicult to distinguish, the colour will show through suitable paper to such an extent as'to indioatewhichis the-mouthpiece end. Ashit-herto people' havebeen accus-- tomed" to put cigaretteslacking tips into their mouths withouthaving to consider which end to insert, it may be that it is-moreimportant toindicatethe mouthpiece endthan tohideirregularities in-thelengths of mouthpieces'.

Further according-to-the-invention there'is-provided a mouthpiececigarette having a whitepaper wrapper and comprising a stub whosecurved surface is of a brownish: colour of such a nature that the colour of the'stub shows through the paper wrapper. with a. colour substantiallyidentical with the colour shown through-the paperby the-tobacco itself 1.

One way ofv carrying the inventioninto: effect will be described; with-reference'to" the accompanying drawing, in which Figure 1 showsrtheexterior-of'a round mouth piece. cigarette;

Figure 2 is an end view of. the topofrFigure 1, and.

Figure 3 is an.end1view'of the bottom of Fig-- ure 1.

Referringto the drawing, the entire exterior of the cylindrical surface of the cigarette is provided by the usual paper tube I. At the upper end is a filter tip or mouthpiece 2 and below this, the tube I is filled with tobacco indicated at 3, Figure 3.

The tip consists of a mass of crepe paper or other suitable material 4 which is bunched or folded and compressed to a suitable size and shape. Such material is normally light colored, varying from white to a deep cream or light buff color. The crepe or like is enclosed, as is common; in a paper wrapper 5. The outer surface of this wrapper is colored, preferably a dark color such as brown, either by stainin white paper or by using colored paper for the tip wrapper. This color: shows through the paper wrapper I, as does. the tobacco contained in the major portion of'the cigarette, the coloring of the tip wrapper being such that this-portion of the cigarette has an appearance approximating that of the remainder. It will be understood that the wrappers I and 5 are drawn much thicker than they actually are so as tov show'them-in the end views.

In carrying out the invention, the colouring of thestub will depend very largely on the cigarette paper-to beused but the following table gives examples of colours which have been tried for the various purposes. In all cases the tobacco used is ordinary bright Virginia while thepaper marked A is thin translucent paper and that marked B is rather thicker andrelatively opaque, but both are from cigarette booklets and the websused on cigarettemachines are, in general, more nearly opaque. It will be understood that in each case it isthe appearance of the stub filled part that is being compared with the tobacco filled part and the inspection has been close but while closer inspection might show a stub, or a bit of tobacco, the terms used relate to an inspection at least asgood as the ordinary casual inspection such as a, smokermight be expected to give.

Further the statement in the table that the bits of tobacco do not show is not always strictlytrue. Bits can be detected by very close inspection but'in" combination with the tint of the stub, the mouthpiece end looks just the same as the rest of" the cigarette so that the whole article when viewed sideways (that is by looking at the paper only and not at the ends) appearstobe all-tobacco cigarette. For instance in EX- amples. Nos. 2,. 3- and 13 with thinpaper, the

colour of the stub-is. suchthat although an ex-- cessive quantity of bits; of tobacco has been in-' serted betweenstub and wrapper for the purpose of. thetest, the effect is all thatcanbe. desired and the. appearance is that of an all-tobacco cigarette.

PaperA Paper B No. Stub Colour iStub Shows Bits Show Stub.Shows Bits Show 1 Chocolate No. 2 Burnt Sienna N Do. 3 Burnt SiennaDarker; Do.

Venetian Red Y Very faint;

No. Light Canary. Very faint.

Gamboge d Do. Bright Emerald Green" Very'faint Db. Pale Prussian Blue No No.

, Darkpobalt Blue c Very faint... Very faint P1115813!) :Blue dos. D Dark Heliotrope .d

DarkBrown Very faint N Blackliainti The best examples, from the table, for most purposes are Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 12, 13 and 14, but in all cases the colour is such that the bits of tobacco between stub and wrapper are not very readily noticed while in some cases the stub is not readily visible and in others it can be detected. These examples and this explanation are deemed to define the expression so coloured accurately enough to enable one to practise the invention. In the case of white stubs, both the stubs and bits of tobacco between the stub and. outer wrapper are fairly readily seen.

The efiect is particularly noticeable when such cigarettes are in a row in a box whereas with stubs coloured as in Example No. 2 it is possible to put an ordinary cigarette among say ten mouthpiece cigarettes where it is absolutely indistinguishable and can only be selected by pure chance.

Moreover against the white background afforded by the stub a bit of tobacco will show up firstly because of its colour, and secondly because of the relief effect due to the fact that the bit is sticking up beyond the surface of the stub and making a corresponding bump on the paper. But if the eye is not drawn to the defect by the colour, then the relief aspect alone is not noticed.

With the foregoing explanations, it is easy to carry the invention into eifect for any particular cigarette, for the colour of the tobacco will be predetermined by the brand and so will the nature and translucency of the paper. It is then merely necessary to consider these two factors and pick a likely colour for the stub, and if the result is not perfect, it is only a matter of increasing or decreasing the strength of the colour used.

This application is a continuation-in-part of my earlier application, Serial No. 114,304, filed September '7, 1949, and abandoned December 26, 1952.

rette paper wrapper enclosing the said tobacco portion and stub, the whole of said wrapper being sufiiciently translucent that the outward appearance of that part of the wrapper which lies over the tobacco portion is darkened by the dark background provided by the tobacco portion, wherein that surface of the stub which is in corn tact with the said wrapper has a brown color so as to provide a background which darkens the outward appearance of the part of the wrapper which lies over the stub in such a manner that the outward appearance of the wrapper is the same along the whole length of the cigarette, while the exposed end surface of the stub is of a color other than the color of tobacco which is easily distinguished from the color of tobacco.

DESMOND WALTER MOLINS.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,005,981 Keenan Oct. 17, 1911 1,338,529 Richter Apr. 2'7, 1920 1,749,582 Kopkins Mar. 4, 19 0 2,033,791 Sulzberger Mar. 10, 1936 2,085,293 Buflington June 29, 1937 2,366,187 Friedwald Jan. 2, 1945 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 2,979 Great Britain of 1900 523,861 France -1 Apr. 29, 1921

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