CIGARETTE. A cigarette is literally a little cigar—finely cut tobacco rolled in paper. In Great Britain the tobacco used in ciga rettes is mostly Bright flue-cured, better known as Virginia. The leaf is properly moistened to make it pliable for stemming, i.e. removing the stalk or midrib. The next process is to cut the leaf into fine shreds. The cut tobacco, conditioned as a rule in large rotary drums, is then subjected to heat to remove excess moisture. Years ago, many people made their own cigarettes by hand. A person making his own cigarette takes a paper of requisite size, places on it the desired amount of tobacco, rolls the paper between his fingers, moistens one edge of the paper, and fixes the cigarette together. Hand-made cigarettes are relatively rare, but there has been developed a small "roll-your-own" machine which any per son can use to make a cigarette.
In factory production cigarette-mak ing machines of the modern type will produce from i,000 to 1,5oo cigarettes per minute. The cigarette paper is put up in bobbins of definite width and is fed into a narrow trough at the side of the machine. The name of the brand is imprinted thereon at definite intervals so that it will appear an each finished cigarette. The shredded cuts of tobacco fall upon the paper which moves into a funnel shaped tube, passing a device which gums the edges, the paper then being automatically folded over the tobacco. The end of the cigarette moves under a knife which cuts it into sections of the desired length.
In Great Britain the type of package used is much different from that used in the United States ; it is known as a slide and shell package, usually containing 10 or 20 cigarettes. The cigarettes are automatically packed by modern machinery, counted, wrapped in foil, and placed in a cardboard slide. The slide is then inserted into a shell of cardboard. The machines are capable of placing an insert in the package. The packages of many of the most popular cigarettes in Great Britain are wrapped in moisture-proof cellophane in order to protect them from the varied conditions of humidity prevalent in the British Isles.
The cigarette business in England has grown from year to year. Approximately 130,000,000lb. of to bacco are used annually in cigarettes for home consumption. To bacco brought into England is taxed with heavy import duty, a great factor of income to the British Government. Virginia to bacco, grown in the United States, is predominantly used in cigarettes made in England ; however, a great deal of tobacco (grown from seed imported from the United States) is shipped into England from various colonies of Great Britain and is used in many of the lower priced brands. Cigarettes are popular with all classes of people in England and are extensively used by women. Turkish and Egyptian cigarettes were at one time popu lar in the British Isles, but account now for only a very small business. Turkish tobacco, used widely in the United States, is imported mainly from Greece and Turkey and in smaller propor tion from Bulgaria, Italy, and Russia.
