CIGAR MAKING 



It was inevitable that modern progress should 

 invade and revolutionize the old and slow 

 methods of cigar making ; and so it has. Smok- 

 ing is a sentimental occupation and lends itself 

 easily to romantic associations. A good deal 

 of romance and sentiment still hangs around the 

 hand-made cigar and cigarette. In an up-to- 

 date cigar factory, however, the whir of ma- 

 chinery and the precise, regular movements of 

 automatic contrivances give little scope for 

 sentiment. 



Up to 1870 cigars were hand-made. All that 

 was necessary was an inexpensive board, a cut- 

 ting knife, and a block of wood with a station- 

 ary knife, known as a "tuck," for measuring and 

 cutting the finished cigar. 



About the time stated the "mold" was intro- 

 duced. The mold is a wooden block about 

 18" x 6" x 3", a tool which facilitates the shap- 

 ing of the "bunch" or filler part of the cigar 

 and presses it into shape. This mold is now 

 used in most "hand-made" cigar factories where 

 the labor is subdivided into "bunch-makers" 

 and "rollers," the latter putting on the binder 

 and wrapper and finishing the cigar. 



It is the introduction of practically auto- 

 matic machinery, however, which is revolutioniz- 



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