Mass producing cigarettes wasn't possible until the 1881 invention of the Bonsack cigarette making machine. James Albert Bonsack revolutionized the cigarette industry virtually overnight. The nimble fingers that handrolled cigarettes could produce just four a minute. Even with a large staff of over 500 cigarette-girls, production was painfully slow. The remarkable Bonsack machine made up to 120,000 cigarettes during a ten hour work day, and was consider the most important tobacco invention of the 19th Century. Many of the women that Bonsack's machine replaced, continued their employment as cigarette making machine operators.