Have you ever given much thought to paper bags? Me neither, but an intrepid self-taught young woman named MARGARET “MATTIE” KNIGHT made them her life’s work.
As a young girl, Mattie had a reputation for designing things. She was the envy of her neighborhood for her kites and sleds. When she was twelve, she went to work in the mills to help her widowed mother. While there she witnessed a young boy getting stabbed by a shuttle flying off the loom. She invented a shuttle restraint system that was widely used in the industry by the time she was thirteen. She never profited off this invention as she didn’t know about patents.
Later, at another factory job, she developed a machine for making flat/square-bottomed paper bags. She worked with various machinists on her invention, fine-tuning the design as she went. Finally, she was ready to patent her invention…only to find someone had already applied for the patent! Charles Annan tried to take credit arguing, in court, that a woman could never design such a machine. Mattie used what little money she had to hire an attorney and through machinists’ testimony and submission of all her designs, she proved it was her invention. She won—she was awarded the patent!
Margaret Knight died at 76. In her lifetime she amassed 27 patents for designs as diverse as clasps for robes to six patents for machines used to manufacture shoes to several devices related to rotary engines. But the invention of the flat-square-bottomed paper bag is what she most known for. She never became rich from her inventions, but her obituary did refer to her as a “woman Edison.” Considering that in 2019 less than 10% of “primary inventor” patents awardees are female, her legal fight was worth the effort. Thank you, Mattie!
To learn more:
- Smithsonian Magazine – Meet the Female Inventory Behind Mass-Market Paper Bags
- Ross & Wallace – The Fascinating History of the Grocery Paper Bag
Photo credit: Boston Sunday Post, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons