The state chronicle. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1883-1893, 1884-05-03
200 A MINUTE.
n Nigarstte Naehine that Makes Thca
ns Fast as You Gas Couut.


DURHAA. April 50. The Bonsack Cigar
cite Machine was s.t To work TODAY for
the FIRST time here To do consecutive work
III Is the moss marvellous piece of ma
chlnery III North Carolina. aud one Of IN.
most remarkable IN the whole world. a
description l. impossible without elabo-
rate diagrams, but the story Of its iryen-
ton Il interesting
lhe inventor, Young man now only
- years of age, Is a son of Mr. Bonsnek.
OF Bonsack Station, in Virginia Six or
seven Years ago, when he was a mere lad,
some one happened TO remark in his hear
ing that all cigarettes are made BY hand
and that the inventor Of a successful ma
chine would make fortune. He went 10
work, and after many experiments and
many improvements, he completed the
complicated machine about year ago
One was put to work in Allen & Ginters
factory at Richmond
1t worked successfully, and Mr.. Bon
sack had others built. He has had the
latest and best ones made in Paris The
| machine at work here is of Parisian man
ufacture.
The tobacco is fed in on slowly moving
| belt, which draws it between rollers A
system of rollers and belts prepares il for
long hopper, which becomes nearly as
narrow at the bottom AS a cigarette is
thick From the bottom of this hopper
| or funnel, steel belts take the tobacco and
carry 1t along. At a proper place the
paper, an endless line of it. comes up un-
| der the tobacco and goes through a tube,
which shapes it round. Just before it en-
| ters the tube the edge runs by paste
applying instrument. Then the tube
forces it into a perfect roll, and the paste
| secures 1t.
| 1t goes on then to a circular knife,
which clips the endless cigarette into
pieces just the proper length, and the
| pieces fall out down tube at the rate of
from 900 to 212 per minute. The paper
unrolls from an endless coil under the ma
1 chine. Before it reaches the tobacco a
name or brand can be printed along the
slip at the proper intervals to mark every
cigarette.
Messrs. W. Duke, Sons Il Co. are the
first to have the machine in operation in
this State AS soon as Mr.. Bonsack fin
ishes the setting up of this one he will
put one in operation for the w. T. Black
we'll Co He does not sell machines
but puts them up, has his own men to run
| them and charges about two-thirds the
cost of making by hand for the work they
| do AT this rate of charges, the profit il
is said, on every machine every day il
runs, is about $36. MIR. Bonsack, there
fore need not be frightened about the pos
sibilities of poverty.
A rapid cigarette maker, by hand, can
make $500 day. One of these machines
makes cumming only ten hours 1870, 900 q
day-or as many as forty-eight hands.
AT last, therefore, a mechanical prob
lem Of long standing has been solved and
it will cause a revolution in cigarette
manufacture. Mr.. Bonsack has fourteen
machines nOw-seven in America anC
seven in Europe. OF course he has pat
ented it in all civilized countries
The inventor is an interesting and unas
suming young man, yet without beard
He looks even younger than twenty two
but has a nervous, quick and business
manner Not many times even in the
wonderful history of the invention of ma
chinery, has greater or more suddcr
stroke of good fortune been hit. AnC
there are not many machines in the world
that are more complicated or work more
beautifully.