50 Things That Made The Modern Economy With Tim Harford

Terrible!

Stickin' Ones Throat!

That's one Smoker's dismissal of camel cigarettes, before taking a blind taste test in 1920s

America.

That's how he knew the cigarette he was smoking must be a lucky strike, his usual brand.

Luck is, you see, go down easy and smooth.

Just like this one.

He was, of course, unwittingly smoking a camel.

Nowadays the awesome power of branding is hardly news.

Like then, it was only just beginning to become apparent.

Early big name brands included Kellogg's serial, Campbell's Soup and Colgate toothpaste.

But nowhere was branding more crucial than with cigarettes.

Why did cigarettes leave the way?

The starring role goes to an inventor from Virginia called James Bonsack.

In 1881, when Bonsack patented his new machine, tobacco had been around for centuries, but

cigarettes remained a niche product.

The market was dominated by pipes, cigars and chewing tobacco.

Bonsack's father owned a wool factory.

The son looked at the factory's carding machine, carding as a step in turning fibers into

yarn, and wondered if he could adapt it for rolling cigarettes.

The contraption he came up with weighed a ton.

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