Patent Application
20070221235
This invention relates in general to devices for warning a smoker of a smoking article (as defined below) that the article's tobacco ember has reached a pre-selected point on the article's tobacco cylinder, e.g. in close proximity to a filter of the article, and in particular to a device capable of being moved to a pre-selected point not necessarily related to filter, the device being responsive to the tobacco ember and operative to produce a visible and/or audible indication to a smoker of the article that the ember is at or in close proximity to the pre-selected point. In a preferred embodiment the warning device is in the form of a movable ember-reactive sleeve around the tobacco cylinder of a smoking article.
As used herein above and below, the term “smoking article” refers to cigarettes whether filtered or unfiltered, cigars, and any product having a smokable cylinder of tobacco of any length or girth, whether wrapped in paper or not.
One very advantageous use of this invention is to pre-select the interface between the tobacco and the filter of a filtered cigarette or very near the interface as the point to place the device. It is unhealthy for a person to inhale smoke from a burning cigarette filter, but this often occurs, such as when a cigarette smoker does not notice that a cigarette ember is burning in close proximity to the cigarette's filter. Often a smoker only notices that the filter is burning by the acrid taste of the smoke, but by then the smoker has already inhaled a significant amount of filter smoke. Also, frequently the ember of a cigarette falls off when it reaches the filter. This creates a dangerous situation because the still burning ember can start a fire if it falls into or onto combustible material. This invention prevents such situations by alerting a smoker that the ember is at or very close to the filter. A smoker thus alerted can then extinguish the cigarette before anything untoward can happen.
As another advantage, this invention allows a smoker to smoke in the dark, for the purpose of, for example, relaxation or to save electricity or for better viewing of a television. As will be seen, certain embodiments of this invention will provide a warning or indication, as described herein, even in the dark.
As another advantage, a sleeve embodiment of this invention can be slid anywhere along the tobacco cylinder of a smoking article, and so a smoker can selectively place the sleeve to be notified when a desired fraction (e.g.: ½ or ⅓ or ¼) of the article has been consumed, this to minimize smoking or to save some of the article for later smoking. In this way a smoking article can be smoked in selected increments for health reasons or for other reasons.
As will be described in more detail below, preferred indications can be for example: a bright or colorful glowing of the warning sleeve according to this invention, a glowing that is easily distinguishable from the ember; or a sparkling or sizzling of the sleeve; or any combination of these indications.
It should be noted that this invention can be used to advantage on any smoking article whether filtered or unfiltered.
Other advantages and attributes of this invention will be readily discernible upon a reading of the text hereinafter.
As for prior art, U.S. Pat. No. 5,154,192 by Sprinkel, et al. discloses thermal indicators for non-combustion smoking articles that chemically react when heated to provide visual indications of temperature changes.
An object of this invention is to provide a device that visually and/or audibly alerts a smoking article smoker when the article's tobacco ember is at a pre-selected point along the tobacco cylinder of the article.
An object of this invention is to provide a device that visually and/or audibly alerts a smoking article smoker when the cigarette ember is in unsafe proximity to the article's filter, before the ember reaches the filter.
A further object of this invention is to provide a sleeve on a smoking article's tobacco cylinder that visually and/or audibly reacts to the article's tobacco ember, and in response alerts the smoker of said article that the ember is in unsafe proximity to the article's filter.
A further object of this invention is to provide warning device embodied as a preceding sleeve extending from a filter of a smoking article, the sleeve alerting a smoker of the article when the article's tobacco ember is at or in close proximity to the filter.
These objects, and other objects expressed or implied in this document, are accomplished by a device disposed in the tobacco burning path of a smoking article's ember, the device producing an indication in response to encountering the ember for alerting the smoker that the ember has reached the device. The device preferably comprises a material disposed at a pre-selected point in the tobacco burning path of the smoking article, the material producing an indication in response to encountering the ember for alerting the smoker that the ember is at the pre-selected point. The material is preferably in the form of a sleeve that is disposed around the tobacco cylinder of a smoking article.
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According to this invention, the warning sleeve is preferably made from or impregnated with or coated with a non-toxic material that will distinctively change color when heated significantly above ambient. An example of such material are polymers recently developed by chemists B. Lucht, R. Euler, and O. Gregory at the University of Rhode Island that change color when heated. One such polymer changes from red to yellow at 180° Fahrenheit—the temperature at which a person would suffer a burn. These polymers can be added to a variety of products, even to paints and ink. Also preferably a sleeve according to this invention is non-combustible relative to the other components of a conventional smoking article.
Alternately or in combination, the sleeve can be made from or impregnated or coated with non-toxic material the sparkles or sizzles when it is in contact with an ember. An example of such material are the chemical mixtures used to make conventional sparklers, which typically consists of an oxidizer such as a nitrates, perchlorates or chlorates; a metal powder for example iron or aluminum; a reducing agent for example charcoal; and a combustible binder for example dextrin. Also alternatively the sleeve may be incorporated into a filter.
Alternately the sleeve or ember-reactive material can comprise such non-toxic color-changing, sparkling and/or sizzling compounds or mixtures integral with a wrapper of a smoking article. For example they can be painted on or impregnated into a small band around the tobacco cylinder or on spots on the cylinder's paper wrapper spaced around the tobacco cylinder so as to be visible no matter which way the cylinder is rotated.
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It should be noted that the figures and the descriptions referencing the figures focuses primarily on a filtered smoking article but, as previously explained, this invention is equally applicable to any smoking article whether filtered or unfiltered.
The foregoing description and drawings were given for illustrative purposes only, it being understood that the invention is not limited to the embodiments disclosed, but is intended to embrace any and all alternatives, equivalents, modifications and rearrangements of elements falling within the scope of the invention as defined by the following claims. For example, the above specification addresses warning material only in the form of a sleeve, but this invention and the appended claims also encompass warning material in other forms. For another example, the warning material can be in the form of one or more individual spots of material strategically placed in the tobacco burning path of a smoking article's ember at a pre-selected point, such as ember-reactive material integral with a wrapper of a smoking article—the material is painted-on or impregnated in the wrapper.
