Cigarette filters

The history of cigarette filters began on the day when in 1925 Hungarian inventor Boris Aivaz came to a patent office to register his patent for the first cigarette filter made of folded paper layers and for the machine that would produce these filters. Then Aivaz turned to investors (The Bunzl family from Vienna) offering to start the production of such filters made of a special paper. All necessary adjustments having been made the filter was introduced into the tobacco industry in 1927.

Nobody remembers now what company was the first to provide its cigarettes with filters, but it’s well known that “filter revolution” began in Europe. However at that moment cigarette filters didn’t take hold in the tobacco industry, as there were no such machines to be able to combine filter with the cigarette without destruction of the latter. And only in 1935 in England they invented such machine. New technology the machine was based on turned the filter production into merchantable business.

Despite filters were being improved during the 30’s – 40’s, still very few brands used them in their cigarettes. In 1952 first filters with the asbestos component were introduced in Kent cigarettes. But in the 60’s filter-tipped cigarettes became a norm. New technologies of double and then triple filters production urged the developers to experiment with materials trying to improve the retention of the filters. The first filter with the activated carbon as an absorbent was produced in that period in the USA.

Shanghai cigarette factory was the first one to introduce a cigarette with a double charcoal filter. In 1988 South Korea presented its new brand “88” having a triple filter. Thereby by the end of the 80’s several trends could be seen in the world cigarette market - charcoal filters predominated in Japan and Korea, Philippines and Thailand were fond of cigarettes with a menthol component, and in Europe people proved to buy cigarettes with the low level of tar and double filters.

In the 90’s the problem of lessening the tar content in the cigarette smoke became very important in Asia, and besides that another stimulant appeared. The difference in customs fees, taxes, excises in different countries and high prices led the way to a lot of imitations. But once had the cigarette filters appeared, they are to exist for a long time. People nowadays continue to buy cigarettes in quantity. They order cigarettes via electronic shopping, trying to find cheap cigarettes, as it seems that buying cigarettes online is the most convenient way for many of them.