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In 1980, Brown & Williamson Tobacco Company (B&W), an affiliate of the British-American Tobacco Company (BAT), was described by a leading business magazine as a "troubled" company that was "betting its future" on Barclay, 1 its first ultra-low tar cigarette and object of the largest cigarette launch in history ($150 million in 1980, equal to about $340 million today). Remarkably, the 1 mg tar King Size (3 mg tar 100 mm) cigarette broke sales records for a new cigarette within months of release. 2
Ultimately, the original Barclay cigarette was found in the USA and around the world to circumvent official tar testing programmes.), Barclay made it unavoidable for most smokers to compromise the filter ventilation system and compensate for reduced standard yields. Conventional ventilated filters allow diluting air to enter through vent holes that let smoke and air mix within the filter. Such a design allows behavioural blocking of air intake dilution holes. 4 Barclay's grooves or channels were formed using a non-porous filter plug wrap that kept the diluting air separate from the rest of the filter. When these grooves became less effective, the entire ventilation system was compromised. On Barclay, air exit grooves as well as air intake holes could be blocked by smokers. 4 In the course of normal smoking behaviours, the grooved dilution filter became compromised either by lips or fingers causing the air dilution channels to collapse or by lips blocking the exit of diluting air to the mouth. The filter ventilation system on Barclay functioned in a standard smoking machine test because the holding device on the machine used very little pressure compared to that arising from lips, fingers, and vigorous puffing.
A diagram of the Barclay cigarette showing the air dilution grooves in the filter plug, and the air intake (ventilation) holes in the tipping paper. The filter is covered with a non-porous plug wrap before grooving. This non-porous plug wrap prevented diluting air from diverting to enter the filter plug and passing into the smoker's mouth, if the channels were blocked or compressed. Therefore Barclay was subject to air intake vents being blocked as well as air exit grooves being blocked. A common type of ventilated filter cigarette would not have grooved channels and would use...