Interesting story from 1991
Patents; Developing 'Smoke-Free' Cigarettes
By Edmund L. Andrews
Published: November 2, 1991
WASHINGTON In what may portend a new attempt to sell "smoke free" cigarettes, three leading tobacco companies obtained patents this week for different approaches to products that mimic the sensation of smoking without actually burning tobacco.
Cigarette makers have been trying to develop a less-objectionable product to contend with declining sales and the rapid spread of smoking bans. In general, smoke-free cigarettes heat tobacco rather than burn it and produce a vapor that resembles smoke but does not contain the thick tar that coats a smoker's lungs. The first attempt to market a smoke-free cigarette, by R. J. Reynolds, flopped two years ago.
Of the three approaches, the Philip Morris Companies has the most radical: an electric cigarette that comes with a replaceable tobacco cartridge and would be controlled by a push-button. According to the patent, the barrel of the cigarette would contain a small battery power source that would be connected by separate electrical leads to 10 tiny heating elements. These elements would either be coated with tobacco extracts and vapor-forming ingredients, or they would be surrounded by tiny pellets of tobacco and other components. Push-Button Smoke
When a person decided to light up, he or she would press a button on the cigarette, activating one of the heaters with a brief electrical charge that creates a puff of hot tobacco flavor. To get a second puff, the smoker would turn a knob at the base of the cigarette that would activate a second heating element.
Would the Marlboro Man smoke a cigarette like this? Philip Morris, based in New York City, refused to comment on its plans, but the new cigarette would clearly offer a very different experience. In the patent, the company said the product would "produce a consistent release of flavor with each puff" without overheating.
Philip Morris received patent 5,060,671.
R. J. Reynolds shelved plans to introduce a smoke-free product called Premier in 1989, after consumers complained in market tests about both its taste and odor. But the company, which returned to the laboratory for more research on the product, obtained another in a series of patents covering its basic approach.
The Reynolds cigarette features a highly refined charcoal tip, which can be lit with a match and is surrounded by an insulating jacket. The "barrel" behind the tip contains tobacco as well as an inner core filled with tiny capsules that emit a tobacco-flavored vapor when exposed to a stream of hot air from the charcoal tip. In Premier, these capsules were tiny beads of alumina coated with tobacco and a mixture of water and glycerine that create a vapor when heated.
R. J. Reynolds received patent 5,060,666.
Patents - Developing 'Smoke-Free' Cigarettes - NYTimes.com
Patents; Developing 'Smoke-Free' Cigarettes
By Edmund L. Andrews
Published: November 2, 1991
WASHINGTON In what may portend a new attempt to sell "smoke free" cigarettes, three leading tobacco companies obtained patents this week for different approaches to products that mimic the sensation of smoking without actually burning tobacco.
Cigarette makers have been trying to develop a less-objectionable product to contend with declining sales and the rapid spread of smoking bans. In general, smoke-free cigarettes heat tobacco rather than burn it and produce a vapor that resembles smoke but does not contain the thick tar that coats a smoker's lungs. The first attempt to market a smoke-free cigarette, by R. J. Reynolds, flopped two years ago.
Of the three approaches, the Philip Morris Companies has the most radical: an electric cigarette that comes with a replaceable tobacco cartridge and would be controlled by a push-button. According to the patent, the barrel of the cigarette would contain a small battery power source that would be connected by separate electrical leads to 10 tiny heating elements. These elements would either be coated with tobacco extracts and vapor-forming ingredients, or they would be surrounded by tiny pellets of tobacco and other components. Push-Button Smoke
When a person decided to light up, he or she would press a button on the cigarette, activating one of the heaters with a brief electrical charge that creates a puff of hot tobacco flavor. To get a second puff, the smoker would turn a knob at the base of the cigarette that would activate a second heating element.
Would the Marlboro Man smoke a cigarette like this? Philip Morris, based in New York City, refused to comment on its plans, but the new cigarette would clearly offer a very different experience. In the patent, the company said the product would "produce a consistent release of flavor with each puff" without overheating.
Philip Morris received patent 5,060,671.
R. J. Reynolds shelved plans to introduce a smoke-free product called Premier in 1989, after consumers complained in market tests about both its taste and odor. But the company, which returned to the laboratory for more research on the product, obtained another in a series of patents covering its basic approach.
The Reynolds cigarette features a highly refined charcoal tip, which can be lit with a match and is surrounded by an insulating jacket. The "barrel" behind the tip contains tobacco as well as an inner core filled with tiny capsules that emit a tobacco-flavored vapor when exposed to a stream of hot air from the charcoal tip. In Premier, these capsules were tiny beads of alumina coated with tobacco and a mixture of water and glycerine that create a vapor when heated.
R. J. Reynolds received patent 5,060,666.
Patents - Developing 'Smoke-Free' Cigarettes - NYTimes.com
