68 CHEMICAL DISCOVERY AND INVENTION 



The work of the Government Laboratory under the head of 

 tobacco consists chiefly in the examination of manufactured 

 tobacco for home consumption and of tobacco, commercial snuff, 

 and offal tobacco for drawback. 



Samples of manufactured tobacco are examined for the pur- 

 pose of controlling the amount of moisture and oil, under regula- 

 tions based on the provisions of the Customs and Inland Revenue 

 Act 1887, as amended by the Oil in Tobacco Act 1900, and the 

 Finance Act 1904, whereby the amount of moisture which may 

 be present in manufactured tobacco is restricted to 32 per cent, 

 and the amount of oil to 4 per cent. Two kinds of samples are 

 taken, distinguished as " General " and " Special." The various 

 officers, to whom the duty of inspecting the manufacture of 

 tobacco is entrusted, are required to take from each tobacco 

 factory in the United Kingdom one or more samples every week 

 in order to ascertain whether the tobacco conforms to the legal 

 limits as regards moisture and oil. These samples are termed 

 " General " samples. When there is reason to suspect that the 

 limit of moisture or of oil is being exceeded, samples are taken at 

 the factory under such conditions that their identity can be 

 established if necessary in a Court of Justice. The samples so 

 taken are called " Special " samples, and in this category are 

 included also all samples taken from the stocks of retailers of 

 tobacco. 



Samples of tobacco are also examined as occasion arises for 

 the presence of ingredients, for example, sugar, liquorice, and 

 colouring matters, the use of which is prohibited by Statute. 



In the operations involved in the manufacture of tobacco 

 from the original leaf a considerable quantity of the material is 

 discarded as unsuitable for the preparation of commercial 

 tobacco or commercial snuff. By regulations based on the pro- 

 visions of the Finance Act of 1904, manufacturers of tobacco are 

 permitted to deposit this refuse or offal tobacco on drawback for 

 abandonment, denaturing, or exportation. For Revenue pur- 

 poses offal tobacco is classified as follows : 



1. Tobacco Stalks the midrib of tobacco leaves. 



2. Shorts or Smalls small pieces of tobacco broken off in the 

 process of manufacture. 



3. Offal Snuff consisting either of ground tobacco or of 

 siftings from tobacco sufficiently fine to pass through the meshes 

 of the official standard sieve. 



