Abstract: Cigarettes or like rod-shaped articles are conveyed sideways in equidistant flutes of a rotary drum at a speed of at least one thousand articles per minute and along an ejecting station having a width which substantially exceeds and can be a multiple of the distance between a pair of neighboring flutes. Selected articles are ejected from their flutes in response to electric or pneumatic signals by being subjected to the action of a mechanical force and/or to the action of a force produced by a stream of gaseous fluid whereby the point of application of the force moves with the flute which contains the respective selected article while such flute travels through the ejecting station. The articles can be held in their flutes by suction or by mechanical means, and the suction or the mechanical retaining action is terminated when a selected article reaches the ejecting station so that the selected articles are separated under the action of gravity and/or under the action of centrifugal force.