CIGARETTES
INTRODUCTION
Tobacco smoking is a practice which has changed little since American natives first stuffed
the tobacco they cultivated in the hills of what is today modern Mexico into hollow reeds. As
the practice spread through the Americas, different cultures wrapped their tobacco in
vegetable leaves or corn husks, or put it in pipes for smoking. Spanish explorers enjoyed
smoking and returned to the Old World with cigars (tobacco wrapped in tobacco leaves). In
the beginning of the 16th century, beggars in Seville, Spain developed the first paper-rolled
cigarettes when they collected discarded cigar butts, shredded them, and rolled them in scraps
of paper. Although the Spanish elite first dismissed them as recycled garbage, these
cigarillos, or little cigars, eventually gained popularity during the 18th century. Cigarette
smoking spread to Italy and Portugal, and eventually to the rest of Europe and into Asia.
As cigarette use spread, the cultivation of tobacco gained in popularity. The Spanish, who
had begun to cultivate the plant in the West Indies around 1530, soon transplanted it to their
own native soil. Jean Nicot, the Portuguese ambassador to France, introduced tobacco to that
country in the 1560s. The ambassador's surname later formed the basis for tobacco's botanical
name, nicotiana, and the French coined the term "cigarette." In 1612, John Rolfe of Virginia
began the commercial cultivation of tobacco, which became the first and most important
export of the English colonies. In fact, French and English smokers soon came to prefer the
mild taste of Maryland and Virginia tobacco to their home-grown varieties.
At first, all cigarettes were rolled manually, whether by the individual smoker or by shop
workers, who rolled and glued cigarettes before they were packaged. Baron Josef Huppmann
was an integral figure in modernizing early cigarette production. He established the Ferme
cigarette factory in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1850 and opened a branch in Dresden, Germany
in 1872. Ten years later he also established the Monopal cigarette works in New York City.
In the 1850s, Englishman Robert Peacock Gloag manufactured cigarettes with Turkish
tobacco and yellow tissue paper. Gloag's method used a thin metal tube to feed crushed
tobacco into a paper cylinder, forming a cigarette.
In 1880, James A. Bonsack was granted a U.S. patent for a cigarette machine that uniformly
fed tobacco onto a continuous strip of paper. It mechanically formed, pasted, closed, and cut
cigarettes with a rotary blade. Six years later this machine was refined by William O'Brien
and James B. Duke, and it produced 4,000,000 cigarettes per day and reduced costs by 50
cents per every 1,000 made. During the World War I era, the longstanding popular bias
against female smokers began to diminish, providing a new market for the tobacco
companies. Packaging machines were developed during the early 1900s, and, in 1931,
moisture-proof cellophane that preserved the freshness of the cigarettes was introduced. Also
in the 1930s, seed flax, an herb commonly cultivated in the U.S., was discovered to be a
viable new source of cigarette paper. This discovery and the erection of a cigarette paper
plant in North Carolina enabled the U.S. cigarette industry to flourish after the end of World
War II.
TYPES OF TOBOCCO
The most important component of cigarettes is tobacco, which graos in two varieties:
Nicotiana tabacum, or cultivated tobacco, and Nicotiana rusica, or wild tobacco. Although
transplanfing machines are available, the vast malority of the world's tobacco plants are still
planted by hand.
THE MANUFACTURING PROCESS
GROWING THE TOBACCO

Tobacco is initially grown in outdoor frames called seedbeds. In warm regions, the
frames are covered with mulch or a cotton top sheet; in cooler regions, glass or plastic
shields are installed to protect the plants. After 8-10 weeks, when the seedlings are
almost 10 inches (25 cm) tall, they are transplanted to the fields. Although
transplanting machines are available, the vast majority of the world's tobacco plants
are still planted manually. As the plants grow, the heads are broken off by hand so the
leaves will grow fuller, a process called topping. The plants stay in the field 90-120
days before they are harvested.
HARVESTING

Tobacco plants are harvested by one of two methods, priming or stalk-cutting. In the
priming method, the leaves are gathered and brought to a curing bam as they ripen. In
the stalk-cutting method, the entire plant is cut and the plants are allowed to
wilt in the field before being taken to the curing barn.
CURING THE TOBACCO



Next, the leaves are carefully, gradually dried in a specially constructed barn by air
curing, flue curing, or fire curing. Air curing uses natural weather conditions to dry
tobacco. Stalks are hung in a barn with ventilators that can be opened and closed to
control temperature and humidity. Artificial heat is used only during cold or
excessively humid weather. The stalks are hung for four to eight weeks.
Flue curing is done in small, tightly constructed barns that are artificially heated. The
heat comes from flues (metal pipes) that are attached to furnaces. Open oil and gas
burners are sometimes used, but this method is problematic because smoke can-not
come in direct contact with the tobacco. Flue curing takes about four to six days.
Fire curing dries tobacco with low-burning wood fires whose smoke comes in direct
contact with the leaves, thus producing a smoky flavor and aroma. The tobacco is
allowed to dry naturally in the barn for three to five days before it is fire-dried for 340 days.
MOISTENING AND STRIPPING

Unless humid weather conditions eliminate the need, the brittle, cured tobacco leaves
must be conditioned in moistening chambers so they do not break when they are
handled. After moistening, the tobacco is stripped. During this process, the leaves are
sprayed with additional moisture as a precaution against cracking or breaking.
SORTING

After the leaves are moistened and stripped, they are sorted into grades based on size,
colour, and quality, and tied in bundles for shipment. The farmers then bring the
tobacco to warehouses, where it is placed in baskets, weighed, graded once again by a
government inspector and, finally, auctioned to cigarette manufacturers.
CONDITIONING, AGING AND BLENDING

After they have purchased and transported the material to their factories,
manufacturers treat and age the tobacco to enhance its flavour. First, the manufacturer
Re-dries the tobacco. This involves completely drying the leaves by air and then
adding a uniform amount of moisture. Packed into barrels called hogsheads, the
tobacco is then aged for one to three years, during which period it develops its flavor
and aroma. After it is aged, the tobacco leaves are again moistened and the stalks and
other wastes removed. Leaves from different types of tobacco are mixed to create a
particular flavour.
MAKING THE CIGARETTE

After blending, the tobacco leaves are pressed into cakes and mechanically shredded.
Materials such as fruit juices or menthol are added to give additional flavor. The final
shredded tobacco is then dispersed over a continuous roll of cigarette paper. A
machine rolls the shredded tobacco into the paper and cuts it to the desired length. A
device then grabs each cigarette and fastens a filter in one end. Modern cigarette
machines can produce 25-30 cigarettes a second.
PACKAGINING

The final stage of cigarette manufacture is packaging. The completed cigarettes are
packed 20 to a package. The hard or soft packs are mechanically sealed in cellophane
and hand-placed in cartons.
BRANDS
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Malboro
Camel
Parliament
Pall mall
Davidoff
Wills
7. Dunhill
8. Lucky strike
9. Benson and Hedges
10. Goldflake
11. Insignia
PARTS OF A CIGARETTE





FILTER – a cellulose tube not filled with tobacco meant to lower the amount of tar
and other unwanted particles from entering the lungs. Invented in the mid-1920s. By
the 1960s, the majority of cigarettes had filters, though even today you can still buy
unfiltered ones.
FOOT – the end that goes in your mouth. On a fully-smoked cigarette, this is known
as the butt.
BAND – similar to a cigar band but usually printed right on the cigarette paper. Can
have the logo or just a simple design.
PAPER – a combustible tube-shaped wrapper to hold the tobacco.
TOBACCO – shredded tobacco leaves, tobacco by-products, and other additives.