Manufacture of cigarettes

Claim 1

IN A CONTINUOUS ROD CIGARETTE-MAKING MACHINE, APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING CIGARETTES HAVING DENSE ENDS COMPRISING A CONVEYOR FOR MOVING AN ELONGATED TOBACCO FILLER STREAM IN THE DIRECTION OF ITS LENGTH AND IN A PREDETERMINED PATH, A TRIMMING DEVICE POSITIONED ADJACENT SAID PATH AT A DISTANCE FROM SAID CONVEYOR WHICH IS LESS THAN THE MAXIMUM DEPTH OF SAID FILLER STREAM, MEANS OPERATING ON SAID FILLER STREAM UPSTREAM OF SAID TRIMMING DEVICE TO COMPRESS SAID FILLER STREAM AGAINST SAID CONVEYOR AT SPACED POSITIONS ALONG ITS LENGTH TO A DEPTH LESS THAN THE DEPTH OF SAID FILLER STREAM EXISTING BETWEEN SAID POSITIONS, WHEREBY THE OPERATION OF SAID TRIMMING DEVICE WILL LEAVE MORE TOBACCO PER UNIT LENGTH AT SAID POSITION, THAN BETWEEN SAID POSITIONS, ROD FORMING MEANS COMPRESSING THE TRIMMED FILLER STREAM TO SUBSTANTIALLY UNIFORM CROSS-SECTION TO FORM A CONTINUOUS CIGARETTE ROD, WHEREBY SAID ROD MAY BE SEVERED AT POSITIONS CORRESPONDING TO SAID FIRSTNAMED POSITIONS TO FORM CIGARETTES HAVING A GREATER DENSITY OF FILLER AT THE SEVERED END THAN AT THE INTERMEDIATE POINTS.