Method of removing carbon-monoxide generated from tobacco

United States Patent Office

3,229,697

Patented Jan. 18, 1966

3,229,697

METHOD OF REMOVING CARBON-MONOXIDE GENERATED FROM TOBACCO

Shun-ichi Maebashi, Tokyo, Japan, assignor to Herman V. Albrecht, Brooklyn, N.Y.

No Drawing. Filed Mar. 6, 1962, Ser. No. 177,741 1 Claim. (Cl. 131—140)

This application is a continuation-in-part of application Serial No. 94,695, filed March 10, 1961, now abandoned.

The present invention relates to the treatment of smoking tobacco to reduce the amount of carbon monoxide resulting from burning the tobacco in a smoking device such as a cigar, cigarette or pipe.

Heretofore, tobacco has been smoked in large quantities and it is well known that the smoke of the tobacco is harmful to the smoker by producing various products of combustion including carbon monoxide. Although it has been known that carbon monoxide is harmful even in small concentrations such as 5 parts of carbon monoxide to 10,000 parts of air, it is known that in the gases passing into the human body from a smoking device, the carbon monoxide content may be as high as 4.2% of the gas which corresponds to 420 parts of carbon monoxide to 10,000 parts of other gases and, accordingly, it should be evident that such high concentration of carbon monoxide is extremely harmful to the smoker.

An object of the present invention is to treat tobacco so that the carbon monoxide resulting from the combustion of the tobacco in a smoking device is reduced to more tolerable limits.

Another object of the invention is to provide catalytic agents in the tobacco to produce a lower concentration of carbon monoxide in the resulting gases from combustion of the tobacco in a smoking device.

In practicing the present invention, an aerogel is formed of finely divided gold in an amount of approximately 14.0,000 part and finely divided zinc oxide in approximately Τί.θοο part whereby the gold and zinc oxide form an aerogel mixture of catalytic agents. This mixture of aerogel catalytic agents is applied to one part of smoking tobacco in a uniform distribution and the so-treated tobacco is used in smoking devices such as cigars, cigarettes, pipes and the like. When the so-treated tobacco is used by a smoker, the amount of carbon monoxide passing through the mouthpiece into the body of the smoker is greatly reduced.

One way of applying the mixture of catalytic agents to the tobacco is accomplished by the provision of a vaporizer or atomizer of the catalytic substance installed in a bottomless box under the bottom of which an endless belt carries the raw materials of tobacco with the endless belt closing the bottom of the box to confine the aerogel of the catalytic agents within the box to assure proper distribution on the tobacco. Both the atomizer and the box are electrically insulated from the belt and in operation the catalytic substances are sprayed out from the atomizer into the box. A direct current electric potential difference is applied between the catalytic substances and the tobacco raw material so that the catalytic substances have a positive charge and the tobacco has a negative 5 charge. The proper amount of the catalytic substance is controlled by controlling the electrical potential between the aerogel of the catalytic agents and the tobacco and by controlling the amount of catalytic agent sprayed out of the atomizer into the box.