James Albert Bonsack (October 9, 1859,[1][2] – June 1, 1924) was an American inventor who developed an early cigarette rolling machine in 1880, and patented it the following year.

In 1878 he was admitted to the Lutheran Roanoke College, but decided to withdraw to work on designing a cigarette rolling machine.

[3][4] After building a successful prototype and patenting his invention, he registered the Bonsack Machine Company of Virginia on March 27, 1883.

In 1875, the Allen and Ginter company in Richmond, Virginia, offered a prize of $75,000 (equivalent to $2.1 million in 2023) for the invention of a machine able to roll cigarettes.

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.