There's no fooling you Cheryl!
Here is the accompanying text, and another illustration.
The next patent, produced about nine months ago, was the "Simplex" cigar slitter; and so rapidly did this "catch "on," that for the first three or four months it was quite impossible to keep pace with the demand, notwithstanding the fact that one of the largest firms in Birmingham, employing several hundred hands, had the contract to manufacture it. Figures 3 and 4 show the most favourite designs out of scores of patterns. It will be seen from the sketches that there is no mechanical action in this cutter, and it consequently cannot get out of order. It has three semi-circular steel knives, riveted and soldered inside a convex or bevelled tube, into which the tip of the cigar is pressed. The three knives make three incisions in the sides of the cigar, creating thereby a perfect draught ; and as the actual tip is neither removed nor destroyed, the outer leaf does not unroll and become loose in the mouth, and the tip remains intact until finished. No fewer than 23,682 have been sold in six months in Great Britain alone. This cutter became such a favourite that it has been combined with a match box, as shown in Fig. 5, and christened the " Duplex " match box. This is made in two qualities of metal, and in silver,- plain, engraved, and fluted.
Source:
The Watchmaker, Jeweller and Silversmith - 1st July 1890
The inventor was F.W. Powell, of 5, Hatton Garden, London, a one time partner in the firm of Fowler & Powell.
See:
viewtopic.php?f=38&t=30091Trev.
