Abstract: An amusement apparatus simulating the game of football is provided. The apparatus includes a simulated playing field, a deck of cards bearing instructions for offensive football plays of designated types, a toy football made of soft material such as foam rubber, and a receiving figure. The receiving figure is formed of a flat vertical member, a base to which the flat upright member is attached and a receiving receptacle attached to the forward side of the vertical member. The receiving receptacle is of a size sufficiently large to receive the football and has enclosed side bottom and forward sidewalls and an open top.

Abstract: A method and an apparatus for reclaiming tobacco from cigarettes is disclosed. The apparatus and method include a cigarette pack opener and a method of opening cigarette packs wherein the packs are conveyed by an endless conveyor along a path of travel having an arcuate portion and a linear portion. The packs are inputted to the conveyor at the arcuate portion where a pair of circular cutting knives are arranged to cut off the end panels of the pack. The packs are then conveyed to the linear portion of the path where pusher/squeeze bars are urged against the side panels of the pack to deform the pack and cause the cigarettes to fall from the pack by gravity into a collector. The empty pack is conveyed to another arcuate portion of the path where it is discarded.

Abstract: An apparatus and method of delivering smokable material to a cigarette maker with reduced degradation of the smokable material. A vertical reservoir tube is provided directly overhead of a plurality of rotatable and longitudinally vibratable rollers having interdigitating pins attached thereto. The rollers serve to meter and open the smokable material. The opened smokable material then falls as a shower from the rotating rollers to a convergent channel formed by two walls oriented at different angles to the horizontal. Air flow channels are provided which feed air along each wall, thereby providing an essentially laminar stream of air downwardly along the walls. An arrangement of multiple hoppers is also provided which permit blending of different types of smokable material prior to forming the smokable material into a braid and feeding the braid to the cigarette maker garniture.

Abstract: An apparatus for making smokable rods having smokable material contained in first and second wrapping materials, the first wrapping circumscribing the smokable material and the second wrapping material circumscribing and overwrapping the first wrapping material is provided. The apparatus includes a garniture means including a movable belt which travels along a predetermined path; a first bobbin for supplying a first wrapping material onto the movable belt of the garniture so as to travel along the path of the movable belt; and a second bobbin for supplying a second wrapping material onto the first wrapping material on the movable belt so as to travel along the path of the movable belt.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for making cigarettes and reclaiming tobacco from rejected cigarettes and rejected cigarette packs are disclosed. A system and method is disclosed for making and packing cigarettes in which tobacco is recovered from individual rejected cigarettes and rejected cigarette packs and then recycled to the maker for inclusion in new cigarettes. Included in the system and method is an apparatus and method for removing cigarettes from cigarette packs to facilitate individual cigarette recovery and tobacco reclamation, in which individual packs of cigarettes are conveyed to an opener stage which removes both end panels of a cigarette pack, and then to an extraction stage which increases the cross-sectional area of the pack, thereby loosening the packed cigarette matrix, applies a nonintrusive removal force, removing the cigarettes from the pack and separating the empty pack from the removed cigarettes.