James Albert Bonsack

James Albert Bonsack (October 9, 1859<ref name="dates">Ancestry of James Albert Bonsack Template:Webarchive. URL last accessed 2006-10-11.</ref><ref name="pat1">U.S. patent 238,640 Template:Webarchive, with diagrams. URL last accessed 2006-10-11.</ref> – June 1, 1924) was an American inventor who developed an early cigarette rolling machine in 1880, and patented it the following year.

Early life

James A. Bonsack was born in eastern Roanoke County, Virginia. His father, Jacob Bonsack, owned a woolen mill where James learned about industrial machinery. In 1878 he was admitted to the Lutheran Roanoke College, but decided to withdraw to work on designing a cigarette rolling machine.<ref name="State Archives">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> After building a successful prototype and patenting his invention, he registered the Bonsack Machine Company of Virginia on March 27, 1883.<ref name="State Archives"/> Following a court battle over alleged patent infringement by the inventor of a competing rolling machine, Bonsack paid $18,000 to buy out the competitor's patent claim.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="State Archives"/>

Bonsack Cigarette Machine

Prior to that time, cigarettes had been rolled by hand. Readymade cigarettes were a luxury item, but were becoming increasingly popular.<ref name="bennett">Bennett, W.: The Cigarette CenturyTemplate:Dead link, Science 80, September/October 1980. URL last accessed 2006-10-11.</ref> The slow manual fabrication process—a skilled cigarette roller could produce only about four cigarettes per minute on average<ref name="output">Bonsack's cigarette machine Template:Webarchive. URL last accessed 2006-10-11.</ref>—was insufficient to satisfy demand by the 1870s. In 1875, the Allen and Ginter company in Richmond, Virginia, offered a prize of $75,000 (equivalent to $Template:Inflation million in Template:Inflation/year) for the invention of a machine able to roll cigarettes.

Bonsack took up the challenge and left college to devote his time to building such a machine.<ref name="bennett"/> In 1880, he had a first working prototype, which was destroyed by a fire while in storage at Lynchburg, Virginia.<ref name="output"/> Bonsack rebuilt it and filed a patent application on September 4, 1880.<ref name="bennett"/> The patent was granted the following year (U.S. patents 238,640<ref name="pat1"/> from March 8, 1881 and 247,795<ref name="pat2">U.S. patent 247,795 Template:Webarchive, with diagrams. URL last accessed 2006-10-11</ref> from October 4, 1881). Allen and Ginter had ordered a Bonsack machine but quickly rejected it, eager to save their prize money and fearing that consumers would balk at a machine-made product.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Bonsack's partnership with tobacco industrialist James Buchanan Duke made full commercial use of the invention, which could produce 120,000 cigarettes in 10 hours<ref name="output"/> (200 per minute), and thereby revolutionized the cigarette industry.<ref name="bennett"/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Duke set a deal with the Bonsack Machine Company in 1884. Duke agreed to produce all cigarettes with his two rented Bonsack machines and in return, Bonsack reduced Duke's royalties from $0.30 per thousand to $0.20 per thousand. Duke also hired one of Bonsack’s mechanics, resulting in fewer breakdowns of his machines than his competitors’.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> This secret contract resulted in a competitive advantage over Duke's competitors; he was able to lower his prices further than others could. Bonsack's machine was so efficient that by 1888, Duke had laid off all the company's cigarette rollers, who had been replaced by Bonsack's machine.<ref>"The Bonsack Machine and Labor Unrest," ANCHOR, North Carolina in the New South (1870-1900) Factories and Mill Villages</ref>

• Bonsack's cigarette rolling machine, as shown on U.S. patent 238,640
  Bonsack's cigarette rolling machine, as shown on U.S. patent 238,640
• Bonsack Cigarette Machine, 1888
  Bonsack Cigarette Machine, 1888
• Bonsack machine model
  Bonsack machine model
• James A. Bonsack was 22 when he invented his machine
  James A. Bonsack was 22 when he invented his machine

Legacy

Bonsack, Virginia, an unincorporated community in eastern Roanoke County, is named after him.<ref name="farm_herald">Prince Edward County seal – wheat sheaf vs tobacco hand Template:Webarchive, The Farmville Herald, Prince Edward County, September 24, 2004</ref>

Further reading

• Tilley, N. M.: The bright-tobacco industry, 1860 - 1929; Arno Press, 1972; Template:ISBN.

External links

• Bristol and the Tobacco Trade – Cigarettes and the Machine

Template:US-inventor-stub