Abstract: A tobacco shredding machine wherein an upright duct delivers particles of tobacco to the rear portion of a channel wherein the particles are converted into a continuous cake whose front end is severed by a set of orbiting knives. The lower rear portion of the duct contains a deflecting conveyor which diverts the oncoming tobacco particles from a vertical path into a horizontal path and drives the oncoming particles at a speed which is a multiple of the speed of tobacco compacting conveyors flanking the channel. The speed of the deflecting conveyor is changed in response to changes in the height of the opening between the stationary and movable sections of a mouthpiece through which the cake passes on its way into the range of the oribiting knives. This ensures that the height of the opening reassumes its normal value without changing the speed of the compacting conveyors. The deflecting conveyor is installed in a support which is removably insertable between the side walls of the duct.

Abstract: The absence of continuity of a single file of rod-shaped articles which are formed by the cutoff of a cigarette or filter rod making machine is monitored by an apparatus having two spaced-apart air discharging nozzles one of which is located upstream and the other of which is located downstream of the accelerating cam which propels successive articles of the file into successive flutes of a row-forming drum. At least one of the nozzles is sealed by an article when the machine produces a continuous file of articles. If both nozzles can discharge air at the same time, the pressure in a conduit which communicates with the nozzles decreases and such drop in pressure is detected by a diaphragm transducer or by the cylinder and piston unit of a pneumatic bridge circuit. This results in the generation of a signal which is used to arrest the prime mover of the machine.