Inside the New Cigarette Factory
The Liggett & Myers New Cigarette Factory, located at 701 West Main Street, was built in 1948 and housed several departments of the organization. This building was also known as the Chesterfield building, named after one brand of cigarette produced within and featured on a massive sign on the roof of the building. Processes that took place within this factory building included cutting and preparing tobacco leaf, preparing casing and flavoring, producing cigarettes and filters, and reviewing the cigarettes before packaging.
These photographs detail the various processes that took place in the New Cigarette building and the people involved.
Inside the New Cigarette Factory
The Liggett & Myers New Cigarette Factory, located at 701 West Main Street, was built in 1948 and housed several departments of the organization. This building was also known as the Chesterfield building, named after one brand of cigarette produced within and featured on a massive sign on the roof of the building. Processes that took place within this factory building included cutting and preparing tobacco leaf, preparing casing and flavoring, producing cigarettes and filters, and reviewing the cigarettes before packaging.
These photographs detail the various processes that took place in the New Cigarette building and the people involved.
Casing, a liquid that contained humectant and flavoring concentrate, was added to the tobacco. Here, on the New Cigarette Factory’s sixth floor, Mack Smith mixes flavoring concentrate that was prepared in the Research and Development Building’s kitchen. The concentrate contained many ingredients, including extracts of rum, prunes, sandalwood oil, and chocolate. Different flavoring mixtures were used in different cigarette brands, and recipes for the top-secret formulas were zealously guarded.
The Liggett & Myers New Cigarette Factory, located at 701 West Main Street, was built in 1948 and housed several departments of the organization. This building was also known as the Chesterfield building, named after one brand of cigarette produced within and featured on a massive sign on the roof of the building. Processes that took place within this factory building included cutting and preparing tobacco leaf, preparing casing and flavoring, producing cigarettes and filters, and reviewing the cigarettes before packaging.
These photographs detail the various processes that took place in the New Cigarette building and the people involved.
Jimmy Long adds flavoring concentrate to a batch of casing.
The Liggett & Myers New Cigarette Factory, located at 701 West Main Street, was built in 1948 and housed several departments of the organization. This building was also known as the Chesterfield building, named after one brand of cigarette produced within and featured on a massive sign on the roof of the building. Processes that took place within this factory building included cutting and preparing tobacco leaf, preparing casing and flavoring, producing cigarettes and filters, and reviewing the cigarettes before packaging.
These photographs detail the various processes that took place in the New Cigarette building and the people involved.
On the sixth floor of the New Cigarette Factory, Mike Gentry mans a tobacco cutter that cuts the tobacco finely. The cut tobacco would be carried by a conveyer further into the factory.
The Liggett & Myers New Cigarette Factory, located at 701 West Main Street, was built in 1948 and housed several departments of the organization. This building was also known as the Chesterfield building, named after one brand of cigarette produced within and featured on a massive sign on the roof of the building. Processes that took place within this factory building included cutting and preparing tobacco leaf, preparing casing and flavoring, producing cigarettes and filters, and reviewing the cigarettes before packaging.
These photographs detail the various processes that took place in the New Cigarette building and the people involved.
Alvis Long aligns filters in the Max 80.
The Liggett & Myers New Cigarette Factory, located at 701 West Main Street, was built in 1948 and housed several departments of the organization. This building was also known as the Chesterfield building, named after one brand of cigarette produced within and featured on a massive sign on the roof of the building. Processes that took place within this factory building included cutting and preparing tobacco leaf, preparing casing and flavoring, producing cigarettes and filters, and reviewing the cigarettes before packaging.
These photographs detail the various processes that took place in the New Cigarette building and the people involved.
Darrell Royster prepares the Protos Cigarette Maker. This machine produced 7,200 cigarettes per minute. Long tobacco rods were cut and fixed to filters with tipping paper. Liggett & Myers made its own filters in their KDF Filter Maker machine, which were then sent to the Protos Cigarette Maker to be joined to tobacco rods.
The Liggett & Myers New Cigarette Factory, located at 701 West Main Street, was built in 1948 and housed several departments of the organization. This building was also known as the Chesterfield building, named after one brand of cigarette produced within and featured on a massive sign on the roof of the building. Processes that took place within this factory building included cutting and preparing tobacco leaf, preparing casing and flavoring, producing cigarettes and filters, and reviewing the cigarettes before packaging.
These photographs detail the various processes that took place in the New Cigarette building and the people involved.
Mechanic Thomas Parker inspects his work on a G.D. X-1 Packer, a third kind of packing machine manufactured in Italy by the G.D. Company and the predominant type used by L&M in 1999 just before the company left Durham. Like the other packing machines, the X-1 wrapped twenty cigarettes in foil before inserting them into packs.
The Liggett & Myers New Cigarette Factory, located at 701 West Main Street, was built in 1948 and housed several departments of the organization. This building was also known as the Chesterfield building, named after one brand of cigarette produced within and featured on a massive sign on the roof of the building. Processes that took place within this factory building included cutting and preparing tobacco leaf, preparing casing and flavoring, producing cigarettes and filters, and reviewing the cigarettes before packaging.
These photographs detail the various processes that took place in the New Cigarette building and the people involved.
After the cigarettes were packed, the packs were sealed. Here, Bonnie Parker threads transparent film onto a G.D. wrapper. This film sealed the packs to keep them fresh. Once the packs were sealed, cartons were boxed on another machine, and sent to the case packer, where cases of 30 to 60 cartons were packed in boxes to await shipping.