In that apparatus, a
spiked roller or doffer is positioned to intersect a stream of falling tobacco leaves discharged from the end of a conveyor belt. The outwardly moving
spikes on the roller engage a portion of the tobacco leaves, tearing it away from the main stream, thus dividing the initial stream into two streams of tobacco leaves -
https://patents.google.com/patent/US5505213-----
A hopper for a cigarette making machine has two
spiked feed rollers and two cooperating high-speed spiked rollers which feed tobacco from tobacco space and onto a spiked drum; this drum feeds the tobacco along part of its path of conveyance and then cooperates with a second drum so as to stretch out lumps in the tobacco while the tobacco is being carried by the second drum. -
https://patents.google.com/patent/US4121596A/en--------