James Albert Bonsack

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

James Albert Bonsack (October 9, 1859,[1][2] – June 2, 1924) was an American inventor who invented the first cigarette rolling machine in 1880.

Prior to that time, cigarettes had been rolled by hand. Readymade cigarettes were a luxury item, but became increasingly popular.[3] The slow manual fabrication process—a skilled cigarette roller could produce only about four cigarettes per minute on the average[4]—was insufficient to satisfy the demands in the 1870s. In 1875, the Allan & Ginter company in Richmond, Virginia offered a prize of US$ 75,000 for the invention of a machine able to roll cigarettes. Bonsack took up the challenge and left school to devote his time to building such a machine.[3] In 1880, he had a first working prototype, which was destroyed by a fire while in storage at Lynchburg, Virginia.[4] Bonsack re-built it and filed a patent application on September 4, 1880.[3] The patent was granted the following year (U.S. patents 238,640[2] from March 8, 1881 and 247,795[5] from October 4, 1881). Bonsack's machine was able to produce 120,000 cigarettes in ten hours,[4] (200 per minute), revolutionizing the cigarette industry.[3]

Trivia

The census-designated place (CDP) of Bonsack, Virginia, located in Roanoke County, was named after James Bonsack, who lived in this town located along route 460 between Roanoke and Bedford.[6]

References

  1. ↑ Ancestry of James Albert Bonsack. URL last accessed 2006-10-11.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 U.S. patent 238,640, with diagrams. URL last accessed 2006-10-11.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Bennett, W.: The Cigarette Century, Science 80, September/October 1980. URL last accessed 2006-10-11.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Bonsack's cigarette machine. URL last accessed 2006-10-11.
  5. ↑ U.S. patent 247,795, with diagrams. URL last accessed 2006-10-11
  6. ↑ Prince Edward County seal – wheat sheaf vs tobacco hand, The Farmville Herald, Prince Edward County, September 24, 2004

Further reading

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

External links

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