Untitled record

Application filed February 15,1896. Serial No. 579)400. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, John E. Bucklin, a citizen of the United States, residing at Washington, in the District of Columbia, have in5 vented certain new and useful Improvements in Cigarette-Boxes; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains io to make and use the same.

My invention relates to boxes or closures formed, preferably, of paper or pasteboard and adapted to be used particularly as envelops for cigarettes, and has for its object to i5 provide certain improvements in that class of boxes adapted to retain the cigarettes or other articles in two separate sections hinged together at their bottoms, whereby the closure will present when closed the same appear2o ance as the boxes now in use, but when opened will separate the contained cigarettes into two packages, from either of which a single cigarette may be readily removed.

In the drawings illustrating my invention, 25 Figure 1 is a perspective view of my improved closure, the same being shown open; Fig. 2, a central vertical sectional view of the same; Fig. 3, a detail perspective view of the combined hinge and closing-flap, and Fig. 4 a de30 tail perspective view of the two eontainingsections.

In the said drawings the reference-numerals 1 and 2 denote the two sections of which the closure is formed, each being adapted in 35 the present instance to contain a single row of five cigarettes. These sections are provided with the front portions 3, the side pieces 4 of the latter being pasted or otherwise fastened to the side pieces of its particular sec40 tion, as shown. These front portions 3 extend, preferably, a little over half-way up the sections 1 2, thus providing for retaining the cigarettes in place, but offering no obstacle to their removal from the top. The bottoms 45 5 of these sections are formed integral with the sections themselves, while, if desired, the front portions 3 may constitute a continuation thereof, each of the sections 1 and 2 being thus formed of a single piece of paper or paste50 board bent and pasted to the desired shape.

The side pieces 6 of the section 1 are double the width of the side pieces 7 of the section 2 and are adapted to overlap the latter when the device is closed. The upper edges of these sections are cut away preferably from 55 end to end at 8 in order to provide room for the fingers of the user to grasp any particular cigarette.

As a means for uniting the two sections of the closure together I provide a wrapper con- 60 sisting of a front piece 9, pasted to the outer face of the section 1 and terminating a little below the cut-away portion 8 thereof. This wrapper passes beneath and is pasted to the bottoms of both sections at 10, forming cen- 65 trally thereof a hinge 11, and from there passes up the outer face of the section 2 at 12, being pasted thereto up to a point a little above the upper edge of the front portions 3 of the two sections. From this point the 70 wrapper is left free and is adapted to fold over the tops of the sections 1 and 2 when closed and to have its pointed tongue 13 engage between the outer face of the section 1 and the part 9, a sufficient portion of the latter being 75 left unpasted to receive the same, as clearly shown in Fig. 2.

From the above description it will be seen that the wrapper will retain the two sections of the closure together when its tongue 13 is 80 engaged between the section 1 and the part 9, but that when this is disengaged the two sections 1 and 2 will separate at their tops, the part 10 of said wrapper acting as a hinge at 11, thus permitting the two separated rows 85 of cigarettes to be removed as may be desired.

I have shown the cut-away portions 8 of the two sections of slightly-different configurations; but it will be understood that this is an immaterial matter, as the same may be cut 90 away on the line of a single curve from edge to edge, if desired. Moreover, though! have described the closure as adapted to contain two rows of five cigarettes each it will be understood that the number of cigarettes in 95 the rows may be increased or diminished, as may be desired.