Margaret E. Knight
Knight's Paper Bag Folding Machine
Margaret Knight was born in Maine in 1838 and started inventing at the age of twelve. She had witnessed a mill accident where a snagged thread caused a spindle to fly off its moorings hitting and injuring a worker. She invented a covered shuttle that is now standard use in cotton mills today. In 1868 while working at the Columbia Paper Bag Company in Massachusetts, she began developing a machine that would make, fold and glue paper bags. At that time paper bags were envelope shaped. Knight also invented the square bottomed bag that is in use till today. She received a patent for her machine in 1871 but had to face a legal battle with one Charles Annan who tried to claim the design of her machine as his own. Annan's position was that Knight as a woman could not possibly have invented the machine. Margaret Knight went on to invent dozens of other inventions--some cite as many as eighty-nine. Among her patented inventions are those for devises that improved her paper bag machine. Others include a design for a window frame and sash, a numbering machine, an automatic boring tool and a spinning or sewing machine. Margaret Knight died in 1914.
Athena Greek Goddess of Mechanical Skills
References:
Margaret Knight Girl Inventor by Marlene Tag Brill (Mill brook, 2001).Women Invent: Two Centuries of Discoveries That Have Shaped Our World by Susans Casey (Chicago Review Press, 1997) p.43-45,73.
Mothers and Daughters of Invention by Autumn Stanley (Ruggers University Press, 1995) pp. 356-359.
Web Sites:
Margaret Knight
Margaret Knight:Paper Bag Queen
Margaret Knight
Margaret Knight's Machine
Margaret E. Knight
Back to the Wood:Margaret Knight
OTHER INNOVATIONS AND INVENTIONS
