US3515151A - Cigarette with filter - Google Patents

Description

June 2, 1970 G. BRENT 3,515,151

C IGARETTE WITH FILTER Filed May 14, 1968 l/Vl/E'N 70/? GEORGE BREW 7' /4 /5 A! lame United States Patent 01 rfice 3,515,151 Patented June 2, 1970 3,515,151 CIGARETTE WITH FILTER George Brent, 357 E. McMurray Road, McMurray, Pa. 15317 Filed May 14, 1968, Ser. No. 729,009 Int. Cl. A24f 7/04, 13/02 US. Cl. 131265 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This invention relates to tobacco products for smoking, and particularly to a manufactured product such as a cigarette or similar like article in which smoke is drawn through a filter into the users mouth, and the invention is particularly concerned with the filter.

Despite the fact that cigarettes with filters have received substantial customer acceptance, presumably in the expectation of reducing the health hazards of cigarette smoking, most have proved to be effective only to a minor extent in reducing the nicotine and tar content of the smoke. This is shown by a report of the Federal Trade Commission on fifty-nine brands of US. cigarettes released to the news services and appearing in daily papers Nov. 28, 1967. In this connection a similar report appeared in the Readers Digest for November 1966, page 7, setting forth the results of tests made for Readers Digest by Foster D. Snell, Inc. according to F.T.C. methods for testing, on the thirty most popular brands of US. cigarettes.

For the most part, the filters employed are plugs or wadding of cotton or cotton-like fibers or porous plugs of a synthetic substance, or activated charcoal. Their effect is limited since, in most cases, there is simply a labyrinth of small passages through which the smoke travels, or in the case of activated charcoal, the filter may be more effective in removing fragrance or flavor of the smoke, as a result of which dilferent and stronger tobacco may be necessary.

The present invention uses as a filter a phosphate which seques-ters nicotine and tar and certain smoke particles, but which nevertheless does not appreciably impair the taste or smell of the smoke. Preferably the filter is formed of phosphate particles, the majority of which are of 100 mesh or coarser. These are granular or beaded granular particles. The phosphate may be used alone, or in conjunction with inert fibers or granular substances that will reduce the pressure drop through it to make the cigarette draw more freely. Spray-dried sodium tripolyphosphate has been found especially effective. The granular phosphate material is desirably confined in the mouthpiece of the cigarette, cigar or other product between retaining wads that prevent it from sifting out the mouthpiece or into the tobacco.

In the accompanying drawing, the figure is a longitndinal section through a cigarette embodying my invention.

In the drawing, 2 designates generally a conventional filter type cigarette having a tubular mouthpiece 3 of stitf paper or paper-like material. At the forward end of the tube there is a thin porous wad 4, and near the opposite end, that is the end which is placed in the mouth, there is a second porous wad or plug 5. Between the elements 4 and 5 there is a loose granular phosphate material 6. This may comprise a single compound, a mixture of phosphates, or a phosphate mixed with short fibers or inert granular material of a coarser nature, as for example,

ordinary white sand for reducing the resistance of the filter to the passage of air or smoke therethrough. The phosphate should have a particle size predominantly of mesh and larger, up to perhaps 50 mesh, as material which is too fine may pack so densely as to make the drawing of smoke through it difficult. Experiment will readily determine the optimum particle size or sizes commercially available. The average cigarettes generally have pressure drops there-through of 3 to 6 inches of water, although around 7 inches or slightly higher would be unobjectionable.

Anhydrous sodium tripolyphosphate, Na P O produced by spray-drying to form somewhat hollow headlike granules, is the material I have investigated. This material is readily available in large quantities at a price which makes its use commercially feasible. It packs less densely than crystalline granules, and the individual particles have rougher or pitted or matted surfaces, and the mesh size most desirable can be produced.

As an example, filters were removed from a well-known brand of cigarettes purchased by me which came near the middle of the list appearing in the Readers Digest article heretofore mentioned. These filters were replaced with the anhydrous sodium polyphosphate beaded granules just described, using about 3.5 to 3.6 grams oz. av.) between two spaced wads of cotton in the hard tubular paper mouthpiece of the cigarettes. As a test, some of these cigarettes with the filters so replaced, but with the nature of the filter then unknown, were smoked by a few persons to whom they were given, and the smoke was found flavorful and satisfying. After smoking some of these cigarettes, the filter material was emptied into water which turned brown, much more so than it did when the conventional filter from this same brand was similarly placed in water after the cigarette had been smoked.

Using the same brand of cigarettes, a number of them had their filters removed and replaced with filters as herein described containing A; oz. of spray-dried granular beads of anhydrous sodium tripolyphosphate as manufactured commercially by Hooker Chemical Corporation, with small cotton wads in the mouthpiece to retain the loose material in place. These were tested against the same brand with the filters as supplied by the manufacturer by Foster D. Snell, Inc. in accordance with Federal Trade Commission methods. In the following quantitative data report, Sample A cigarettes were the untouched cigarettes as removed from the package, and Sample B refers to the cigarettes in which the tripolyphosphate filters had been substituted. Only the brand name has been deleted from the analysis.

QUANTITATIVE DATA Total particulate matter Moisture Nicotine Tar Mg. in smoke of 1 cigarette Sample A Run 36. 1 5. 9 1. 20 29.0 Run 2 37. 3 6.1 1. 21 30. 0 Run 3 36. 8 5. 2 1. 22 30. 4 un 4 36. 8 5. 2 1. 26 30. 3

Average 36. 8 5. 6 1. 22 29. 9

Average number of pufis. 8.4. 5 Sample B:

Average 15. 0 1. 2 0. 70 13. 1

Average number of pufis, 8.2.

The report further remarks that this comparison indicates for Sample B a 56% reduction of tar and a 42.6%

reduction in nicotine from the corresponding figures for Sample A having the manufacturers original filter.

Important to the invention is that while the phosphate is superior to conventional filters, the taste and aroma of the tobacco smoke is not noticeably impaired and is more satisfying to smokers who have tried cigarettes embodying my filter than filters to which they were accustomed. 1

While I have described my invention particularly with reference to cigarettes, which are particularly harmful because the usual smoker inhales cigarette smoke to a far greater extent than do smokers of other tobacco products, the invention may be applied to other tobacco products, such as cigars provided with a holder or mouthpiece in which the holder or mouthpiece is permanently or temporarily integrated during smoking with the tobacco product, and the term cigarette as herein used includes cigars with mouthpiec'es and cigarette or cigar holders With which the cigar or cigarette is combined during smoking, including a cartridge-type body or filter for 20 2. A mouthpiece for use at one end of a cigarette or the like as defined in claim 1 in which the phosphate is comprised of hollow bead-like granules of sodium tripolyphosphate.

3. As a new article of manufacture, a tobacco smoke filter element comprising a body having a passage for smoke to be drawn therethrough having a non-toxic phosphate compound said phosphate compound comprising beaded granules of anhydrous sodium tripolyphosphate therein through which smoke passing through said passage must trave References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,940,456 6/ 1960 Touey 131-266 3,246,654 4/1966 Stahly 131262 X 3,319,635 5/1967 Stahly 131-266 X 3,320,961 5/1967 Hughes et al. 131-267 3,368,566 2/1968 Avedikian 13ll0.7 3,428,055 2/ 1969 Sublett et al. 131--266 FOREIGN PATENTS 760,772 11/1956 Great Britain.

ALDRICH F. MEDBERY, Primary Examiner D. I. DONOHUE, Assistant Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 131266, 107

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