James Albert Bonsack

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.{{cite web |url=https://digital.ncdcr.gov/Documents/Detail/history-of-the-bonsack-machine-company./288828 |title=History of the Bonsack Machine Company |work=State Archives of North Carolina }}{{cite web |first=Amanda |last=Stark-Rankins |url=https://www.virginialiving.com/culture/feed-roll-paste-and-cut/ |title=Feed, Roll, Paste and Cut: A revolutionary invention |work=Living Virginia |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170114023358/https://www.virginialiving.com/culture/feed-roll-paste-and-cut/ |archive-date=January 14, 2017 }} After building a successful prototype and patenting his invention, he registered the Bonsack Machine Company of Virginia on March 27, 1883. Following a court battle of alleged patent infringement by the inventor of a competing rolling machine, Bonsack paid $18,000 to buy out the competitor's patent claim.[https://cite.case.law/f/70/383/ Bonsack Mach. Co. v. Elliott, 69 F. 335 (2nd Cir. 1895)]

Prior to that time, cigarettes had been rolled by hand. Readymade cigarettes were a luxury item, but were becoming increasingly popular.Bennett, W.: [http://tobaccodocuments.org/nysa_ti_m2/TI08961040.html The Cigarette Century]{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, Science 80, September/October 1980. URL last accessed 2006-10-11. The slow manual fabrication process—a skilled cigarette roller could produce only about four cigarettes per minute on average[http://www.wclynx.com/burntofferings/adscigmaker.html Bonsack's cigarette machine] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061113183233/http://www.wclynx.com/burntofferings/adscigmaker.html |date=2006-11-13 }}. URL last accessed 2006-10-11.—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 ${{Inflation|US|.075|1875|r=1}} million in {{Inflation/year|US}}) 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. In 1880, he had a first working prototype, which was destroyed by a fire while in storage at Lynchburg, Virginia. Bonsack rebuilt it and filed a patent application on September 4, 1880. The patent was granted the following year (U.S. patents 238,640 from March 8, 1881 and 247,795[http://patimg2.uspto.gov/.piw?Docid=00247795&idkey=NONE U.S. patent 247,795] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107013544/http://patimg2.uspto.gov/.piw?Docid=00247795&idkey=NONE |date=2017-11-07 }}, with diagrams. URL last accessed 2006-10-11 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.{{Cite book|last=Brandt |first=Allan M. |author-link1=Allan M. Brandt |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1040961514|title=The cigarette century : the rise, fall, and deadly persistence of the product that defined America|isbn=0-465-07048-5|oclc=1040961514}}

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, (200 per minute), and thereby revolutionized the cigarette industry.{{cite book |doi=10.1515/9780822379355-004 |chapter=3. James B. Duke, the Bonsack Cigarette Machine, and the Origins of the American Tobacco Company |title=The Dukes of Durham, 1865-1929 |date=2020 |pages=26–55 |isbn=9780822379355 |s2cid=242426958 |publisher=Duke University Press }} 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’.{{cite book|last1=Brandt|first1=Allan M.|author-link1=Allan M. Brandt|title=The Cigarette Century: The Rise, Fall, and Deadly Persistence of the Product that Defined America|url=https://archive.org/details/cigarettecentury00bran|url-access=registration|date=2006|publisher=Basic Books|location=New York|isbn=9780465070473|pages=[https://archive.org/details/cigarettecentury00bran/page/29 29]}} 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.[https://www.ncpedia.org/anchor/bonsack-machine-and-labor "The Bonsack Machine and Labor Unrest," ANCHOR, North Carolina in the New South (1870-1900) Factories and Mill Villages]

File:Bonsack machine.png|Bonsack's cigarette rolling machine, as shown on U.S. patent 238,640

File:Bonsack Cigarette Machine, 1888.jpg|Bonsack Cigarette Machine, 1888

File:Bonsack Machine Model.JPG|Bonsack machine model

File:James Albert Bonsack.JPG|James A. Bonsack was 22 when he invented his machine

Bonsack, Virginia, an unincorporated community in eastern Roanoke County, is named after him.[http://www.fpehs.org/pewords.html Prince Edward County seal – wheat sheaf vs tobacco hand] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170708152637/http://fpehs.org/pewords.html |date=2017-07-08 }}, The Farmville Herald, Prince Edward County, September 24, 2004

{{reflist}}

• Tilley, N. M.: The bright-tobacco industry, 1860 - 1929; Arno Press, 1972; {{ISBN|0-405-04728-2}}.

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20071027153254/http://weldgen.tripod.com/tobacco-trade/id2.html Bristol and the Tobacco Trade – Cigarettes and the Machine]

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Category:1859 births

Category:1924 deaths

Category:19th-century American inventors

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