Celebrity Inventors
Glam girl Heddy Lamar may have used her good looks to good effect on the silver screen, but she put her smarts to better use as an inventor. During World War II, she co-patented a frequency-switching system for torpedo guidance that was considered years ahead of its time.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7320326 | Method for the treatment of tobacco In a process for the treatment of tobacco, in particular Burley tobacco, the tobacco, which is preferably in the form of leaf tobacco, is treated with a casing, which preferably contains sugar. A thermal treatment of the casing-treated tobacco with saturated steam f... | 01/22/2008 |
| 6170489 | Tobacco distributor for cigarette rod making machine The carding at the periphery of a driven wheel in the distributor of a cigarette rod making machine receives tobacco particles from the lower portion of a substantially upright duct the upper portion of which can receive tobacco particles from a magazine ... | 01/09/2001 |
| 6019105 | Tobacco processing method and apparatus Before being processed in a pneumatic separator or classifier (13), a stream of cut tobacco, travelling to the separator on a conveyor (12), is passed through an opener (11) to open up tangled masses of tobacco that cannot be handled by the separator. The... | 02/01/2000 |
| 5813413 | Method and plant for treating tobacco leaves for the production of cut tobacco The invention relates to a method and a plant for the treatment of tobacco leaves for the production of cut tobacco for smokable articles, in which stems and the lamina material of the tobacco leaves are conditioned and cut separately from each other. The... | 09/29/1998 |
| 5626152 | Cigarette making machine A cigarette making machine comprises means for showering tobacco onto two suction bands 610,612 to form tobacco sub-streams of similar width on the respective bands which are then merged to form a cigarette filler stream, and includes rod-forming means fo... | 05/06/1997 |
| 5515873 | Cigarette making machine A hopper for a cigarette making machine has a carded roller (14;52;54;60) arranged to feed a carpet of tobacco, a generally horizontally extending conveyor band (32) for receiving the tobacco from the carded roller, and means for removing the tobacco from... | 05/14/1996 |
| 5331977 | Distributor for cigarette manufacturing machine A cigarette manufacturing machine having a distributor including a duct, along which shredded tobacco is fed, and a withdrawal roller for withdrawing tobacco from the duct. The duct has a plurality of agitating disks rotatably mounted therein, each being ... | 07/26/1994 |
| 5273057 | Cigarette manufacturing machine A cigarette manufacturing machine wherein a shredded tobacco distributor presents a drop-down duct for the tobacco, and a pair of rollers rotating about respective axes, for withdrawing the tobacco from the outlet of the duct. The rollers are supported on... | 12/28/1993 |
| 5267578 | Controlled opening of fibrous materials Fibrous materials are opened from a metered flow thereof using an opening roller and are subjected to a controlled and adjustable further opening operation to input desirable properties to the fibers. The invention is particularly described with respect t... | 12/07/1993 |
| 5211187 | String doffer mechanism A mechanism for removal of contaminants from a stream of material having a plurality of rotatable cylindrical doffer elements each having flights supplied with cleaning means thereon mounted substantially parallel to one another within a frame. The mechan... | 05/18/1993 |
| 5199446 | Cigarette making machine A cigarette making machine includes a shower channel (10; 46; 59; 75; 90; 102; 113; 121) through which tobacco is arranged to be showered towards two suction bands (11,12; 66,67; 76,77; 103,104; 114,115) arranged to move towards one another so as to form ... | 04/06/1993 |
| 5159939 | Method of and apparatus for delivering tobacco to a cigarette maker An apparatus and method of delivering smokable material to a cigarette maker with reduced degradation of the smokable material. A vertical reservoir tube is provided directly overhead of a plurality of rotatable and longitudinally vibratable rollers havin... | 11/03/1992 |
| 5141003 | Cigarette making machine Cigarette making machine including two suction bands arranged to move towards one another and having tobacco showered onto the bands. The two bands form two tobacco sub-streams from showered tobacco and upon merger form one stream. At the point of merger ... | 08/25/1992 |
| 5141002 | Apparatus for feeding tobacco particles to one or more consuming machines Apparatus for feeding tobacco particles to one or two cigarette rod making machines has a magazine with a duct having an open lower end above the upper reach of an endless belt conveyor. The conveyor can be driven to advance tobacco particles in the duct ... | 08/25/1992 |
| 5080112 | Controlled opening of fibrous materials Fibrous materials are opened from a metered flow thereof using an opening roller and are subjected to a controlled and adjustable further opening operation to input desirable properties to the fibers. The invention is particularly described with respect t... | 01/14/1992 |
| 5049007 | Horizontal belt conveyor airlock An airlock for the batch or continuous feeding of a material while obstructing the free flow of a gas. The airlock comprises a continuous belt having a substantially horizontal upper surface and a plurality of non-porous flights projecting out from the be... | 09/17/1991 |
| 5018538 | Cigarette making machine Apparatus for feeding tobacco in or to a cigarette making machine comprises a number of carded rollers (10, 11, 12, 18) which transfer a metered stream of tobacco from one to the other while allowing relatively short strands or particles of tobacco to dro... | 05/28/1991 |
| 5002072 | Cigarette manufacture A cigarette making machine includes one or more conveyor bands (12,14,28) or other parts of non-metallic material from which pieces can break off and become entrained in the tobacco, including means (30,42) for detecting such pieces in the tobacco by dire... | 03/26/1991 |
| 5000197 | Automatic control for feeding tobacco to a machine A pressure sensor (P) and a time-measurement component actuate a gate (15) for clearing out a duct (7) as a function of a predetermined program. When the gate is open, the feed of the machine is interrrupted. When the gate is closed, suction air carries a... | 03/19/1991 |
| 4971077 | On-line tobacco evaluation system and method The present invention comprises a product moving apparatus for moving a tobacco product, a vertical feeder tube for metering the tobacco product onto the product moving apparatus at a predetermined rate, a system for maintaining a predetermined height of ... | 11/20/1990 |
| 4967769 | Combined feeder/conditioner An apparatus for feeding and conditioning tobacco which includes a housing into which steam is supplied to treat tobacco being uniformly conveyed therethrough and wherein the inlet and outlet to the housing include rotating vanes for allowing for the pass... | 11/06/1990 |
| 4967770 | Cigarette making machine hopper Degradation of tobacco brought about by refuser and recycle procedures in conventional cigarette-making machine operations is eliminated by feeding, metering and opening tobacco from a reservoir directly onto the external surface of a rotary or rectilinea... | 11/06/1990 |
| 4953570 | Cigarette making machine hopper Degradation of tobacco brought about by refuser and recycle procedure in conventional cigarette-making machine operations is eliminated by feeding, metering and opening tobacco from a reservoir directly onto the external surface of a rotary or rectilinear... | 09/04/1990 |
| 4932423 | Tobacco feeding apparatus In apparatus for feeding tobacco to cigarette-making machines, the tobacco (9) is conveyed by suction from a feed receptacle (1). One end (14) of a duct (3) facing the receptacle above the level (19) of the tobacco is provided with a device (16) for regul... | 06/12/1990 |
| 4911182 | Expansion of tobacco Extraction means capable of providing a constant feed rate to the inlet of a tobacco expansion pneumatic transport system is provided at the outlet of a tobacco reservoir zone. The extraction means is preferably in the form of a pinned roller capable of m... | 03/27/1990 |
| 4883077 | Apparatus for transporting and treating particles of tobacco and the like A stream of air is circulated by a blower along an endless path a portion of which is defined by an upright duct having an air inlet at its lower end, an air outlet at its upper end, and an inlet for comminuted tobacco particles intermediate its air inlet... | 11/28/1989 |
| 4875493 | Device for feeding streams of tobacco on to a cigarette manufacturing machine A device for feeding streams of tobacco on to a cigarette manufacturing machine, which device presents an up-flow input duct, two up-flow output channels connected to the top end of the input duct via a chamber, and a device for dividing the input tobacco... | 10/24/1989 |
| 4869273 | Method and apparatus for building a continuous stream of tobacco or the like A cigarette rod making machine wherein the distributor forms a continuous stream of tobacco particles including freshly admitted tobacco particles and surplus which is removed from the stream by a trimming device. Fresh tobacco particles are drawn from a ... | 09/26/1989 |
| 4867180 | Cigarette making machine hopper Degradation of tobacco brought about by refuser and recycle procedures in conventional cigarette-making machine operations is eliminated by feeding, metering and opening tobacco from a reservoir directly onto the external surface of a rotary or rectilinea... | 09/19/1989 |
| 4850749 | Airlock having flaps in continuous feed of material carried by a gas stream while obstructing free flow of gas An airlock for the continuously feeding through of a material while obstructing the free flow of a gas is provided. The airlock comprises a first continuous belt having a plurality of nonporous flaps projecting out from it. Each flap has a free edge locat... | 07/25/1989 |
| 4802497 | Tobacco feed system for cigarette making machine A system for feeding tobacco pneumatically and continuously to a cigarette making machine includes a fan (34,116; 148) which draws air through the machine via a suction band (48) and via one or more screens (96,98) and also serves to draw air through a du... | 02/07/1989 |
| 4756315 | Cigarette manufacturing machine with an auxiliary tobacco feed unit A cigarette manufacturing machine having an auxiliary recycled tobacco feed unit communicating with a downflow duct for feeding tobacco to a continuous cigarette rod forming section; the aforementioned auxiliary unit comprising an input conveyor belt comm... | 07/12/1988 |
| 4754765 | Hopperless cigarette making machines The quality of a tobacco filler rod as formed in cigarette-making machines is improved. The improvement is achieved by by-passing all the metering and refusing mechanisms of a conventional cigarette-making machine and providing a wide carpet of opened tob... | 07/05/1988 |
| 4700719 | Control of cigarette rod formation Tobacco trimmed from a filler rod is recycled and used in the control of the rod-forming operation. A reservoir vessel is divided into physically-separate chambers, a narrow one of which receives the recycled trimmed tobacco and a wider one of which recei... | 10/20/1987 |
| 4696311 | Forming a rod of smokable material In a machine for making cigarette rods containing two types of tobacco there is provided a dual hopper (1200) for containing the two types of tobacco separately and a conveyor (1206) to transport the tobaccos side by side to a chute (1203) and then to a c... | 09/29/1987 |
| 4696312 | Method and apparatus for producing cigarette filler A method and apparatus for producing tobacco filler by cutting whole tobacco leaves, including stems, is provided. The leaves, with stems in, are cut to produce strands of lamina and strands of stem and lamina. The strands are carded to disentangle them a... | 09/29/1987 |
| 4681124 | Apparatus for manipulating particles of tobacco or filter material The distributor of a cigarette maker has an upright duct with an inlet at the top and an outlet at the bottom. The inlet receives particles of tobacco from a magazine and the accumulated particles descend in the duct to be removed at the outlet by the car... | 07/21/1987 |
| 4657031 | Cut tobacco distributing device for cigarette making machines The invention has for its object a cut-tobacco distributing device for cigarette making machines. The distributing device includes a rotating drum (2) provided with points (3) which takes or receives the cut tobacco. This drum (2) provided with points (3) coop... | 04/14/1987 |
| 4635648 | Shredded tobacco feeding apparatus for cigarette making machine A shredded tobacco feeding apparatus for a cigarette making machine is disclosed. It includes a storage reservoir for temporarily storing shredded tobacco, a device for feeding a constant quantity of shredded tobacco from the reservoir continuously, a dev... | 01/13/1987 |
| 4627447 | Tobacco winnowing method and apparatus Winnowing of shredded tobacco stem material, or other particulate tobacco material, is effected by metering the shredded stem material from a reservoir and then picking the metered flow to open and separate the particles one from another. The resulting st... | 12/09/1986 |
