60 - Louis BEAUCHÉ

Ernst BÜCHNER, resident of Frankfurt am Main, represented BEAUCHÉ in Luxembourg. BÜCHNER applied on 28 September 1857 for a brevet d’importation for a

Machine à fabriquer des cigares

Louis BEAUCHÉ, a Parisian fabricant de cigares had invented a successful machine which made it even into the US magazine « Scientific American » in 1859. [1]

The principle of the machine consists in rolling the pieces of tobacco leaf between two elastic endless bands which run in opposite directions. Two pairs of these endless bands are prepared, one for rolling together the filling of the cigar and the other for winding the wrapper.

In an earlier edition of the magazine [2] the following was reported:

The Scientific American recently examined a most ingenious machine, the invention of M. Louis Beauché, of Paris, for making cigars. The machine is in two parts, one for rolling the filler (the bunch), and the other for putting on the wrapper; the last, by the peculiar shape of the roller forms the rounded end of the cigar (the head,) which is put in the mouth, and the cigar is as easy to smoke and as nice in shape as any hand-made one. The wrappers are cut from a pile (book) of leaves to the proper shape by a novel cutting machine, and a great number can be cut at once. The motions of the hand are perfectly imitated, and the softness and elasticity of that member, which render it capable of such work, is obtained by endless bands of rubber moving over rollers, and which roll the cigar into shape.

At an examination of this machine at Madrid, made by royal order, the commission reported that it made 42 cigars in ten minutes, or 252 in one hour, and this was manifestly so great a saving that it would have been adopted by the Spanish government if that body had had other means of employing the number of persons which such a machine would throw out of employment, but it will eventually be adopted in Spain. 

BÜCHNER filed a German language description and drawings of the invention.

The administrative file does not reveal what happened to the application. In any case, the Mémorial did not mention the grant of a patent. 

BEAUCHÉ obtained corresponding patents in France, the USA and in Great Britain. [3] 

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[1] Scientific American, Vol 1, No 16, 15 October 1859, page 1 

[2] Scientific American, Vol 1, No 8, 20 August 1859, page 114 

[3] FR patent No 27,829, US patent No 19,341 and GB patent No 1,100/1858

(26/02/2021)