Cigarette monitoring apparatus

Apparatus for monitoring the assembly of filter tipped cigarettes, said apparatus comprising:

• means for continuously advancing a succession of assembled cigarettes transversely to their length through an optical device;
• said optical device including at least two transmitters for transmitting beams of light across the plane of movement of the cigarettes at different angular orientations relative to the movement plane, each beam being interrupted by each advancing cigarette for a time depending on the effective transverse dimension of the cigarette as seen by that beam, and photosensitive elements for receiving the beams of light from said transmitters and for providing a signal corresponding to the time during which the respective beam of light is interrupted;
• and signal combining means coupled to said photosensitive elements and responsive to the combined magnitude of the signals of said photosensitive elements for responding to a defective cigarette if the combined magnitude of said signals is outside a predetermined range.