Francis Wolle

Francis Wolle (December 17, 1817, in Jacobsburg, Pennsylvania – 1893, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania) was an American priest of the Moravian Church, inventor and phycologist.

Francis Wolle invented the first bag-making machine in 1851, forming the basis for the Union Bag and Paper Company.

Wolle's bags were folded similarly to aerograms; several tablike edges were folded over and pasted. These early bags had an envelope-shaped bottom, and could not stand upright on their own. They had to be held open while being filled, and could not easily hold bulky items such as groceries and hardware goods. James Baldwin received a British patent in 1853 for the semi-mechanised manufacture of flat-bottomed paper bags. Margaret E. Knight patented a machine in 1871 for the manufacture of flat-bottomed paper bags.

Currently his company is under the ownership of International Paper.

Wolle edited the exsiccata-like specimen series Freshwater Algae of the United States.

Works Desmids of the United States and list of American Pediastrums, 1884 Fresh-Water Algae of the United States (exclusive of the Diaomaceae) : complemental to Desmids of the United States, 1887 Diatomacea of North America, 1890