Inventor Sees Market in Thrifty Puffers
Device is designed to let smokers salvage butted cigarettes
You might think a device called Butt Out would help you quit cigarette smoking.
But no, the invention may likely help puffers perpetuate their habit, because it’s aimed at reducing their cigarette expenses.
The inventor, Jason, said the device helps a person butt out a cigarette in a way so that the unfinished cigarette can be smoked again.
The 31-year-old, who describes himself as “between jobs,” said normally, if a partially smoked cigarette is returned to its package, it emits an unpleasant smell that dissuades some people from saving unused portions of their cigarettes. But, he said, if the cigarette is inserted in his invention it would snuff it out without creating any smell and the device—holding the smoked cigarette—could be returned to the cigarette pack and lit again at the smoker’s pleasure.
So, with Butt Out, he said, people can make full use of their smokes, as they would never have to discard a half-burnt or three-quarter burnt cigarette. He said it should appeal to smokers who rush cigarettes in typically uncomfortable designated smoking areas—often to such a degree that they only consume a portion of their cigarette.
Jason said he came up with Butt Out—his first invention—after looking for such a product for a long time.
“I’ve had a lot of brilliant ideas but I’ve never done anything with them,” he said. “Hopefully, with this, we’ll sell a million of them.”
Jason, who said he smokes “whatever is the least expensive cigarette for sale,” will only describe the device in broad terms—as its patent application is pending. He and a Florida company he’s working with on its development declined to release photos of a prototype.
“It’s going to be just big enough to fit over the end of a cigarette but it’s going to be small enough to fit into a cigarette package,” he said.
Jason said the device could help people smoke less because if they wanted to smoke only half a cigarette at a time they could easily do that—without wasting a considerable amount of cigarettes.
He took his idea to Invention Technologies Incorporated of Coral Gables, Fla., and the company is looking for investors or companies interested in manufacturing it under a license.
Jason said an application with the U.S. patent office was filed about six weeks ago and it could take up to a year to get the patent.
“We hope to have the device sold before then,” he said. “My preference on marketing is it would just be sold beside lighters or beside the cigarettes.”
Jason said the gizmo will sell for about $1. “This is one of the benefits. It is not very expensive,” and a person would not be too worried about losing it, he said.