US2002120A - Method of and apparatus for conditioning cigar wrapper leaf tobacco - Google Patents

Description

y 1935- cxe. MAXWELL 2,002,120

METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR CONDITIONING CIGAR WRAPPER LEAF TOBACCO Filed Jan. 27, 1931 '7 Sheets-Sheet'l N .3 k n E sk t b INVENTOR.

2: CHARLES a. MAXWELL,

ZZlI/l/l/ Lo A TTORNEYS.

y 1935- v c. G. MAXWELL 2,002,120

METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR CONDITIONING CIGAR WRAPPER LEAF TOBACCO Filed Jan. 27, 19 '7 Sheets-Sheet 2 IN VEN TOR.

G.MAXWELLI A TTORNEYS.

y 1935- c G. MAXWELL 2,002,120

METHOD OF AND APPARATUS'FOR CONDITIONING CIGAR WRAPPER LEAF TOBACCO Filed Jan. 27, 1931 7 sheets-sh et 3 Fig. 3

44 Fl9.% 45 59 36 4l 1 38 38 INVENTQR. CHARLES G.MAXWELL,

A TTORNEYS.

y l c. G. MAXWELL 2,002,120

METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR CONDITIONING CIGAR WRAPPER LEAF TOBACCO Filed Jan.. 2?, 1951 v Sheets-Sheet 4 pm I o 00 (\l 0 N\ o I (\1 l 2 2 Ln N x m m M n Q3 2 o N M m N wnr) F \O r N 01 E m N 9| I o l o (\J 00 0) v m INVENTOR.

CHARLES G.MAXWELL.

ATTORNEYS. t k9 May 21, 1935. 2,002,120

METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR CONDITIONING CIGAR WRAPPER LEAF TOBACCO c. e. MAXWELL Filed Jan. 27, 1931 '7 Sheets-Sheet 5 INVENTOR.

CHARLES G. MAXWELL, BYJLL7 W ATTORNEYS.

y 21, 1935- cl G. MAXWELL 2,002,120

METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR CONDITIONING CIGAR WRAPPER LEAF TOBACCO Filed Jan. 27, 1951 7 Sheets Sheet 6 INVENTOR. CHARLES a. MAXWELL,

I8 I Fig.13 MW qyww ATTORNEYS.

y 1935- c. G. MAXWELL METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR CONDITIONING CIGAR WRAPPER LEAF TOBACCO Filed Jan. 27, 1931 '7 Sheets-Sheet '7 IN V EN TOR. .MAXWELL, gg v -q A T ORNEYS.

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Patented May 21, 1935 (UNITED STATES METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR CON DITIONING CIGAR WRAPPER LEAF TOBACCO I Charles G. Maxwell, Louisville, Ky., assiguor, by .mesne assignments, to The American Tobacco Company, a corporation of New Jersey Application January 2'7, 1931, Serial No. 511,631

' Claims. (Cl. 131-55) My present invention relates to a new method 'of and apparatus for conditioning cigar wrapper tobacco leaves to render them soft and pliant,

and in the best possible condition, without de- 5 terioration, for immediate use in the manufacture of all grades of cigars. I

Cigar wrapper tobacco leaves are delivered to cigar manufacturers in so-called hands or bundles, consisting of a number of leaves tied together at their butt ends. When received, the leaves are relatively dry and usually some of the leaves are matted, i. e., in adherent contact with adjacent leaves requiring manual separation before they can be properly conditioned under present conditioning methods. When in a relatively dry state the leaves break easily, especially when separated or unmatted by hand, and as this class of tobacco is expensive, (9. large part of it being imported) any breakage of the leaves which will reduce the number of individual cigar wrappers that may be obtained from each leaf becomes a matter of great economic importance to the cigar manufacturer.

Furthermore, the color of the leaves is also of great importance, especially those of a relatively light brown or mil color, and as they change color or become darker under the influence of mildly excessive heat and become spotted by globules 'of water, any conditioning 30 method to be acceptable to a careful manufacturer, jealous of his product, must be devoid of such evil influences. and to be commercially practicable the leaves must be uniformly conditioned in the shortest possible time.

The objects, therefore, of the present invention are to provide a distinctly 'new method of and apparatus for conditioning cigar wrapper leaf tobaccos to render the leaves soft and pliant, without deterioration, which may be carried out continuously and wherein the leaves may be conditioned in a much shorter time than is possible with the methods now generally in use.

Briefly and generally stated, the method consists in continuously and slowly passing the hands of leaves, (preferably suspended by their butt ends) thru a moving atmosphere having a humidity of from 94 to 98 percent, and a temperature of from 70 to 85 degrees F., and in maintaining the leaves in such humid atmosphere for a period of time suilicient to permit them to naturally absorb or take upsuihcient moisture to render them soft and pliant, and may further consist in imparting a lateral swingin motion to the hands as they travel through the atmosphere in order that the matted leaves the tobacco and the velocity and temperature of 10 the current of humid air passing through the treatment chamber, and so far as I am aware no method or apparatus has ever been produced that will effectively do the work in so short a period of time. 1 In order to enable others skilled in the art to understand and practice my said invention, I will now proceed to describe the same in connection with the attached drawings, in which I have illustrated one form ofapparatus for carrying out the method. r

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a wapper conditioning apparatus constructed in accordance with my invention.

Figure 2 is a plan view.

Figure 3 is an end elevation of the apparatus shown in Fig. 1, looking at the right-hand end thereof.

Figure 4 is a transverse section taken on the broken line 4-4 of Fig. 1.

. Figure 5 is a longitudinal section taken on the line 55 of Fig. 2. v

Figure 6 is a detail view showing the gear reduction driving mechanism for advancing the endless chain conveyors.

Figure '7 is a detail view showing the take-up mechanism for the endless chain conveyor.

Figure 8 is an enlarged section showing two of the inlet passages leading to the conditioning chamber.

Figure 9 is a plan view of the mechanism for reciprocating the conveyor chains to impart, a swinging movement to the suspended hands of leaves. 4

Figure 10 is a section on the line lt-ll of Fig. 9.

Figure 11 is a section taken on of Fig. 9.

Figure 12 is a of Fig. 10.

Figure 13 is a section on the line ll-ll of Fig. 12.

Figure 14 is a longitudinal section of modified form of apparatus.

the line section taken on the line l2-l2 5a a slightly Fig. 14.

Figure '15 is a section on the line i i-id of sprocket chain it? driven by motor 2i and including any approved type of reducing gearing Figure 16 is 'a transverse section of a modified shown in the present instance as enclosed in form of tobacco hand-carrying bar and its clips. housing 20 Fig. 6, and also including sprocket Figure 17 is a rear view of one of the clips illuschain 2 I, which drives the large gear 22 mounted trated in Fig. 16. 1 upon the shaft 23,-all as more clearly shown in Figure 18 is a longitudinal sectional view of Figures 1 andfi. one end of the modified form of tobacco hand- The length of the conditioning chamber and carrying bar showing its pivotal or swivel con the speed of the conveyor chains are so propornection with the carrier chains. tioned that it requires anywhere from three to Referring more particularly to Figures 1, 2 and five hours for a given point on the chain, as for 5, the reference numeral i indicates a relatively instance a particular supporting bar iii, to travel long chamber, the walls of which are preferably entirely through the chamber. This speed is composed of insulating material of any suitable sufliciently slow to permit an operator standing nature, opposite sides thereof being preferably at the inlet end of the machine to load all of the provided with suitably-spaced sight windows 2, 'clips of a particular supporting bar with hands covered with transparent material for observing of tobacco before that bar moves up into its casthe interior of the chamber when in working coning 5, and to permit an operator at the outlet end dition. of the apparatus to remove all of the conditioned This chamber 2 may be supported by any suithands of leaves from an exposed supporting bar able means, but I prefer to suspend it from the before it returns into the chamber and during ceiling 3 of the room in which it is installed, and the movement of the conveyor, and without stopfor this purpose any approved supporting means ping the same. By this arrangement the opermay be employed, such as the metal or other hangers 4.

When thus supported, the spacebeneath the ation of the apparatus is continuous, the hands being fed in at one end and removed at the other. In the particular apparatus illustrated, I have inlet and outlet ends of the chamber for a purchamber may be utilized for working or storage shown the conditioning chamber as made of two purposes. Each end of the chamber i is provided sections arranged end to end, each section being with a downwardly and outwardly inclined casprovided with an inlet 2!; at its bottom, and an 5 p a its extremity, as Shown in Figs- 1 outlet 25, at its top, each outlet being housed in a d a t the e of the figures indicating a hood 2t, and each having communication with the inlet end of the appa atus. .and t a to t e the upper part of the interior of the chamber right indicating the outlet end; Shafts 6 are through a plurality of ports or passages 2i, lojournaled in the lower end of each of the casin? cated in the top wall thereof. The inlets 24 le d Said Shafts Carrying Sprocket Wheels t into chambers 28, arranged at the bottom of the sp wheels a es p on other shafts conditioning chamber of the apparatus, and com- Su a ly m d t the inlet and Outlet ends of munication is bad between the chamber 28 and the chambe Said Spreeket Wheels Supporting the interior of the conditioning chamber through a Pa Of Suitably trained endless chain Conveyors ports or passages 29, in each of which is mounted the pp runs of which are exposed at the a plurality of louvers 30, each having a depending laterally deflecting vane 3!, all as more clearly pose presently to be described. shown in Figs. 5 and 8, the said louvers operating The chain convey rs 9, y be maintained to properly deflect and distribute the currents relatively taut by any suitable slack adjuster, as of humidified air ith which the conditioning the toothed idlers 9,' 1113011 the p n chamber is supplied from below upward through Pressed red 9b as more clearly Shown in Figure the suspended hands of leaves, and out through The sprocket wheels 8 for the upper run of the th tl t 211, chains are so located within the chamber as to Any suitable air conditioning or humidifying cause the said run of the conveyor. to travel means may be employed t supply properly hrou h th upp r portion of the hamber. T ditioned air to the conditioning chamber. In the two endless chains 9 are arranged to travel present instance, I have shown in Figure 2, more t h the Chamber and the Casings 5 at D- or less diagrammatically, two of such conditioning p sit s d s h f, a d sa d a s a y a p umeans designated generally by the numeral 32, ralitv f sui blypac d r v rs to acco each having an outlet pipe or a conduit as. cona Supporting bars as o e clearly shown nected with the inlets 24 to the conditioning chamin Figures 10 and 12, each bar carrying a pluher, and each having an inlet pipe 3 5 connected rality of appropriately-spaced tobacco hand to the outlets 25 leading from the conditioning gripping devices, such as spring clips, each 0011- chambenthe arrangement being such that propsisting of a fixed jaw l2, and a movable springerly conditioned humidified air may be caused to pressed jaw l3, the said jaws being pivoted at M, circulate through the conditioning chamber in and normally held in gripping position by means appropriate volumes and at appropriate speeds. of aspring l5. The lower end of the fixed jaw-l2 so that the amount of humidified air passing is provided with a series of outwardly-projecting through the chamber may be regulated at will. points or projections l6, and the lower end of As is well understood in the art, each humidithe movable jaw I! is curvedor arched in crossfying apparatusQwbich I have not shown in desection, as more clearly shown in Figure 12, and tail, includes suitable water jets or sprays, someis longitudinally corrugated or providedwith times called air washers. through which air inwardly-extending points or projections, as at is forced to properly condition the air. As such [8, so as to firmly grip the butt ends of the apparatus is well known in the art. I do not deem hands" or bundles of leaves to be passed through it necessary to illustrate or describe the same in the conditioning chamber. detail.

Theendless chain conveyors 9, with their supporting bars ID, are caused to .travelslowly method, I have found that the air to be supplied through the conditioning chamber by any suitable to the conditioning chamber must have a moisslow-speed gearing or driving means, such as the ture content of between 94 and 98%. Percentages Suflice it to,say, in the practice of my new aooaiao appreciably below and above these limits will likely defeat the objects of the invention. Like wise, the conditioning air must have a temperature of between and F. The proper temperature is provided preferably by installing suitable heating units (not shown) in the airmoistening or humidifying apparatus. Temperatures appreciably below or above those indicated are also likely to defeat the purposes of the invention, because overheating the tobacco leaves will either discolor them, or cause some other deteriorating effect.

I have found in the practice of my improved method, that it, is highly desirable to imparta lateral swinging motion to the hands of leaves as they travel through the conditioning chamber. This not only tends to separate the matted leaves, one from another, but also opens up the individual leaves of the hands, so that the moving current or currents of conditioned air which pass upward through the chamber, attack every portion of the various leaves of the hands, and thus thoroughly and uniformly condition them so that they will be rendered appropriately soft and pliant, ready to be worked in the manufacture of cigars.

One form of means for imparting this lateral swinging motion to the suspended hands of leaves is more clearly illustrated in Figs. 4, 5, 9 and 11,

and comprises means for imparting short lateral movements to a section of the upper run of the chain and its supporting bars. This means 0 sists in providing extra supporting sprockeg5 for a section of the upper run of the endless c ins 9, said supporting sprockets being carried by longitudinally reciprocating stub-shafts 33, mounted in journals'3l, carried by brackets 39 at each side of the chamber l, on opposite sides of the center thereof, as more clearly shown in Figure 10.

The stub shafts 36 are each reciprocated by means of a link 39, eccentrically connected to a disk 40, mounted upon the shaft of a motor 4|, as more clearly shown in Figure 10. The link 39 is pivotally connected to an oscillating bar H, which in turn is secured at its lower end as at 42, to the shaft 36, and at its upper end as at 43, to a reciprocating rod 44, which extends transversely through the upper part of the conditioning chamber, and is connected to the shaft 36, at the other side of the apparatusby means of a strap connection' 45, so that the conveyor chain supporting sprockets 35 at opposite sides of the conditioning chamber will be reciprocated simultaneously, thus imparting short laterally-directed vibrations or reciprocating motions to a relatively long section of the upper run of the conveyor chains, this resulting in imparting a sidewiseswinging motion to the hands of leaves suspended from the various supporting bars l0, carried by the chain between the uppermost fixed sprockets 8, within the conditioning chamber. r

In order to provide for free and practically frictionless movement of the reciprocating shafts 36, which carry the sprockets 35, I provide the bearings 31 for said shafts with anti-friction rollers 46, mounted in suitable grooves in the shafts and their bearings respectively, as more clearly shown in Figure 11.

In the apparatus illustrated in the accompanying drawings, which is a substantial duplicate of a cormnercial structure I have built and successfully operated, the conditioning chamber I is approximately 60 feet long and the speedof the tobacco transporting conveyor is approximately 2 inches per minute. This means that with a chamber of this length and a movement of the conveyor as specified, it requires about five hours for the hands of leaves to pass through the conditioning chamber, and to be completely and properly conditioned. This conditioning time may be lowered to approximately three hours by increasing the volume of the stream of. conditioned air passing through the chamber, always with the understanding that the percentage of humidity and the temperature are not appreciably above or below those heretofore stated.

The length of stroke given the shafts 33 to cause a swinging motion to be imparted to the hands of leaves is about 4 inches, and I prefer to impart from 80 to strokes per (minute, although I do not wish to be understood as limiting myself to any length of stroke or number of strokes per minute, nor do I wish to be understood as limiting myself to any particular length of conditioning chamber, or to any particular speed of travel of the conveyor chain. Obviously, these may be varied within limits, without departing from the spirit of the invention; nor do I wish to be understood as limiting myself to the employment of two air-conditioning means associated with each conditioning chamber, as one or more such means may be employed, depending upon the size of the chamber.

An important feature of my new method resides in the fact that the conditioning is performed at temperatures which are the average normal temperatures prevailing in the various working rooms of a factory in which my apparatus, and other machines, are installed, and as the conditioning chamber is open at both ends the tobacco coming from the chamber directly into-the room neither sweats nor becomes stiff.

In Figs. 14 and 15 of the accompanying draw-, ings, I have illustrated a slightly'modifled arrangement of the conditioning chamber. The main difference in this arrangement over that shown in the other views resides in the fact that both runs of the endless chain conveyer travel through the upper part of the conditioning chamber, the hands of leaves in this arrangement being supported by the bars of. the lower run of the chains as shown.. With this arrangement the upwardly moving currents of humidified air are not in any way deflected by the bars which carry the hands ofleaves as in the arrangement illustrated in the first described form of the apparatus. I therefore prefer to use the arrangement illustrated in Figure 14.

In this Figure 14 the numeral 2' indicates the sight windows in the opposite walls of the conditioning chamber, and the numeral 4' indicates the supports for the chamber, the chamber in this instance being supported from the floor instead of being suspended from the ceiling. The numerals 5' indicate the extensions for the endless carrier chains, said extensions being located at the opposite ends of the chamber, and the bottom of each chamber being provided with openings for the chains and their hand supporting bars to pass through.

As in the prior construction, the left-hand end of the Fig. 14 construction is the feeding or inlet end, and the right-hand end is the discharge or outlet end of the apparatus. The endless chain carriers 9' travel over the sprockets 8', and the tobacco hand supporting bars are indicated at It.

As, shown in Fig. 16, I prefer to construct the bars ill of sheet metal, as such construction is not likely to warp or twist. I prefer to enclose or encase the metal bars I within an insulating strip or cover of felt or other fabric H, to guard against condensation of moisture upon the bars.

In Fig. 16, the numeral l2 indicates the fixed member of the hand-butt engaging clip, l3, the

movable member or jaw whichis pivoted at M, and 15' indicates the spring for normally holding the movable jaw into gripping relation with the fixed jaw.

In Fig. 17 I have shown the rear face of the fixed jaw l2 provided with struck up perforations of the apparatus.

As will be seen by referring to Fig. 14, the extensions at the opposite ends of the conditioning chamber support the endless chains in such a way that the lower runs of the chains at each end of the apparatus will expose the tobacco hand-carrying bars and their clips to permit the operator at the feed end of the machine to readily attach the tobacco hands to the clips, and the operator at the delivery end of the machine to readily remove the conditioned hands from the clips.

The numeral 24' indicates the inlet end of the chamber 28' into which the conditioned air comes from the air washer or conditioning apparatus, and 29 indicates the openings leading from the casing 28' into the conditioning chamber, 3| indicating the louvre.

As will be seen by referring to Figure 15, there are two rows of spaced openings leading from the chamber 28' into the conditioning chamber, and these openings are arranged in spaced relation to permit of a large number of well distributed outlets for the conditioned air so that all portions of the leaves of thesuspended hands will be directly attacked by the air.

The numeral 26' indicates the casing at the top of the conditioning chamber out through which the, conditioned air passes, and numerals 21 indicate the openings leading from the top of the conditioning chamber into the casing 25'.

Numerals 35' indicate the laterally reciprocating sprockets which support the lower run of the endless carrier chains, and which impart a sidewise swinging motion to a portion of the lower run of the chains, their bars and the hands of leavessupported thereby, it being'understood that the sprockets 35 may be reciprocated by any suitable mechanism, such, for instance, as that illustrated in the prior described arrangement.

In the last described arrangement, as in the one previously described, the conditioned air having the humidity and temperature stated, is caused to circulate through the conditioning chamber, into contact with the travelling hands of leaves, and then back to the air moistening or conditioning apparatus, with all of the advantages heretofore referred to, and. the additional advantages described with reference to the modified arrangement.

It will be understood that according to my method the tobacco leaves do not, at any point in the conditioning operation, come into direct contact with free water such as would tend to spot or discolor the leaves. Because of this, the

tobacco leaves retain their natural color and are not subject to rapid deterioration or rot;

While I have described my method as being continuous, in that the hands of tobacco are moved continuously through the conditioning chamber, I do not wish to be understood as limiting myself to a continuously moving endless conveyor, as the objects of the invention may be accomplished by an intermittently moving conveyor.

While I prefer. to impart a lateral swinging motion to the hands of leaves asthey travel thru the conditioning chamber, because this speeds up the operation and makes for thorough and uniform conditioning of the leaves, I do not wish to be understood as limiting myself to this step in the method, as with some types of tobacco the step may be omitted.

My new conditioning method is not to be confused with the well known so-called ordering methods now generally employed by manufacturers-of various kinds of tobacco products, such as cigarettes, smoking and chewing tobaccos, as such ordering methods differ materially 'in various particulars from my method, and are incapable of accomplishing the results secured by the practice of my method or to be substituted for my method.

What I claim is:-

1. The herein-described continuous method of conditioning tobacco leaf wrappers to render them soft and pliant, which consists in continuously\passing a succession of suspended hands of leaves into, through and out of a chamber slowly and in direct contact with a current of warm humid air moving thru the chamber, the said air having a moisture content of approximately 96 per cent and in so regulating the conditions of operation that the moving tobacc will be maintained in the presence of the h .id atmosphere until it absorbs naturally all the,moisture it can assimilate by absorption in such an atmosphere, the temperature of -.the said atmosphere being such as to substantially retard the formation of water globules such as would tend to spot the leaves.

2. The herein-described continuous method of conditioning tobacco leaf wrappers to render them soft and pliant, which consists in continuously passing a succession of suspended hands of leaves into, through and'out of a chamber slowly and in direct contact with a current of humid air moving thru the chamber, the said air having a moisture content of approximately 96 per cent, and a temperature of approximately 80 degrees F., and in so regulating the conditions of operation that the tobacco in its' travel through and out of the chamber will be maintained in the presence of the humid atmosphere for a sufficient length of time to permit it to absorb naturally all the moisture it can assimilate by absorp: tion in such an atmosphere.

3. The herein-described continuous method of conditioning cigar wrapper leaf tobacco to render 4. In an apparatus for conditioning "hands" of tobacco leaves to render the leaves soft and pliant, a conditioning chamber, means for transporting hands of leaves through said chamber, means for creating and causing a current of humid air having a'moisture content of approximately 96 per cent and substantially free of water globules to pass through said chamber, and into contact with the hands of leaves, and means for moving said transporting means and the attached leaves through the chamber at such a speed proportioned to the length of the chamber that the leaves will absorb naturally all the moisture they can assimilate by absorption in such an atmosphere and thus be rendered soft and i pliant by their travel thru and out of the chamber in one direction.

5. In apparatus of the class described, a chamher having an inlet opening at one end and an 20 ,the conveyor for carrying suspended hands of tobacco leaves, means for imparting short lateral reciprocating movements to a portion only of the conveyor as it travels through the chamber to cause the hands of leaves carried by said portion to swing laterally from their suspended butt ends, and means for introducing humid air into the chamber.

6. In apparatus of the class described, a conditioning chamber having an inlet opening at one end and an outlet opening at the other end, an endless chain conveyor passing through said chamber, and having portions thereof extending thru and beyond said inlet and outlet openings, means carried by the conveyor for carrying suspended hands of tobacco leaves, means for, imparting short lateral reciprocating movements to a portion of the conveyor travelling through the chamber, to cause the hands of leaves to swing laterally from their suspended butt ends,

- and means for introducing warm humid air into the chamber, having a moisture content of from 94 to 96% and a temperature from 70 to 85 F.

7. In an apparatus of the class described, a conditioning chamber having an inlet opening at one end and an outlet opening at the other end, a pair of endless chains trained to move through said chamber, with one run thereof positioned in the upper part of the chamber, bars carried by the chains and arranged transversely of the chamber, means carried by the bars for engaging and holding the butt ends of hands of tobacco, for supporting them in a suspended position, means for imparting relatively short reciprooating'movements to a portion only of the upper run of each chain for causing lateral swinging movements to be imparted to'the suspended hands of leaves carried by said portion, and means for causing humid air to flow through the chamber and into contact with the suspended leaves.

chamber, transverse bars carried by the chains,

a plurality of clips attached to each bar, each clip having jaws for gripping the butt end of a hand of leaves, a plurality of spaced inlets leading through the bottom of the chamber, means for producing and causing humid air having a moisture content of approximately 96% to pass upwardly through said inlets and through the chamber and into contact with the leaves travelling therethrough, and a plurality of spaced outlets for the humid air at the upper part of the chamber.

9. In apparatus for conditioning cigar tobacco leaf wrappers, a conditioning chamber having an inlet opening at one end and an outlet opening at the other end, a pair of endless conveyor chains passing throughsaid chamber,withportions thereof extending through and beyond said inlet and outlet openings, means for supporting the upper run of the chains to cause them to travel through the upper portion of the chamber, transverselyarranged bars carried by said chains, a plurality of clips carried by each bar for grasping and holding the butt ends of hands of leaves, means for causingthe upper run of the chains to reciprocate laterally for the purpose specified, and means for causing a current of humid air having a moisture content of from 94 to 98% humidity, and a temperature of from 70 to 85 F. to pass through said conditioning chamber.

10. In apparatus for conditioning hands of tobacco leaves to render the leaves soft and pliant, a conditioning chamber having an opening at each end thereof, means for transporting tobacco hand'carrying bars through the upper portion of said chamber and slightly beyond each end thereof, spaced means carried by the bars for holding hands of leaves suspended therefrom, slow-speed driving means for advancing the bars slowly through the chamber, and means for creating and causing humid air having a moisture content of approximately 96% and a temperature of approximately 80 F. to flow through said chamber and into contact with the leaves passing therethrough, the construction and arrangement of parts being such that the leaves in their passage through and out of the chamber will be maintained in the presence of the humid atmosphere until they absorb naturally all the moisture they can assimilate by absorption in such atmosphere.

11. In apparatus for conditioning hands of tobacco leaves to render the leaves soft and pliant, a conditioning chamber having an opening at each end thereof, endless chains for transporting hands of tobacco leaves through said chamber and beyond each end thereof, spaced means carried by the chains for suspending the hands of leaves therefrom, slow-speed driving means for advancing the chains slowly through the chamber, and means for creating and causing humid air having a moisture content of approximately 96% and a temperature of approximately 80 F. to flow through and out of the chamber, the speed of the chains andthe length of the chamher being such that the leaves will remain in contact with the humid air for a suflicient length of time to render them soft and pliant by their travel through and out of the chamber in one direction.

12. In apparatus for conditioning hands of tobacco leaves to render the leaves soft and pliant, a conditioning chamber having an opening at each end thereof, endless chains for transporting hands of tobacco leaves through said chamber and beyond each end thereof, spaced mwans carried by the chains for suspending the hands of leaves therefrom, slow-speed driving means soft and pliant during their travel through and out of the chamber in one direction.

13. In an apparatus for continuously conditioning hands of tobacco leaves to render the leaves soft and pliant, a conditioning chamber, means for transporting hands of leaves through one end and out of the other end of said chamber, means for producing and causing a current of warm humid atmosphere substantially free of water globules and having a moisture content of approximately 96 per cent to pass through and out of said chamber, and into direct contact with the traveling hands of leaves, and means for moving said transporting means and the attached tobacco leaves through the chamber at such a speed proportioned to the length of the chamber and the character of the tobacco that the leaves in their travel through and out of the chamber will remain in the humid atmosphere for a length of time suflicient to enable them to naturally absorb all the moisture they can assimilate by absorption in such an atmosphere to render them soft and pliant.

14. A tobacco conditioning apparatus of the class described comprising a chamber having an opening at each end, an endless conveyor supaooaiao ported for movement through the chamber with portions thereof extending beyond the said end openings, a housing at each end of the chamber partially enclosing said extending portions of the endless conveyor but leaving a section thereof exposed for attaching and removing hands of tobacco leaves during such movement of the conveyor, tobacco hand-supporting bars carried by said endless conveyor and arranged transversely of the chamber, means carried by said bacco and means for creating and causing a current of warm humid air having a moisture content of approximately 96 per cent and a temperature of approximately 80 degrees to flow into, through, and out of said chamber.

15. The herein-described continuous method of a conditioning tobacco leaf wrappers to render them soft and pliant, which consists in passing a succession of suspended hands of leaves into, through and out of a chamber and in direct contact with a succession of upwardly directed currents of warm humid air moving through the chamber, the said air having, a moisture content of approximately 96%, and in so regulating the conditions of operation that the tobacco inits travel through and out of the chamber will be maintained in the presence of the humid atmosphere for a sufiicient length of time to permit it to absorb naturally substantially all the moisture it can assimilate by absorption in such an atmosphere, the temperature of the said atmosphere being such as to substantially retard the formation of water globules such as would tend to spot the leaves.

CHARLES G, MAXWELL.

bars for gripping the butt ends of hands of to-.

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