Margaret E. Knight

Margaret Eloise Knight (February 14, 1838 – October 12, 1914 ) was an American inventor, notably of a machine to produce flat-bottomed paper bags. She has been called "the most famous 19th-century woman inventor". She founded the Eastern Paper Bag Company in 1870, creating paper bags for groceries similar in form to the ones that would be used in later generations. Knight received dozens of patents in different fields and became a symbol for women's empowerment.

Early life Margaret E. Knight was born in York, Maine, on February 14, 1838, to Hannah Teal and James Knight. As a little girl, “Mattie,” as her parents and friends nicknamed her, preferred to play with woodworking tools instead of dolls, stating that “the only things [she] wanted were a jack knife, a gimlet, and pieces of wood.” She was known as a child for her kites and sleds.

Knight and her brothers, Charlie and Jim, were raised by their widowed mother; Any formal education she had was limited to secondary school, However, thinking to more fully automate the process, in 1868 Knight invented a machine that cut, folded, and glued paper to form the flat-bottomed brown paper bag familiar to shoppers today. This machine enabled the mass manufacture of flat-bottomed bags, increasing the speed of production.

For her invention of the paper bag machine, Knight was decorated by Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom in 1871. In total she was granted at least 27

Legacy Quote|text=I’m only sorry I couldn’t have had as good a chance as a boy, and have been put to my trade regularly.|author=Margaret Knight, reflecting late in life At the time Knight patented her paper bag machine women held a tiny fraction of patents. In 2019 fewer than 10% of primary inventor patent holders were female.

A plaque recognizing her as the "first woman awarded a U.S. patent" and holder of 87 U.S. patents hangs on the Curry Cottage at 287 Hollis St in Framingham. However, Knight was not actually the first: either Mary Kies, Hannah Slater, or Hazel Irwin, who received a patent for a cheese press in 1808, holds that honor.

The flat-bottomed paper bag machine was Knight's most successful invention. A scaled-down but fully functional patent model of her original bag-making machine is in the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.

Patents Compound Rotary Engine. US716903A • 1902-12-30 Rotary Engine. US717869A • 1903-01-06 Rotary engine. US720818A • 1903-02-17 Rotary engine. US730543A • 1903-06-09 Automatic Tool For Boring Or Planing Concave Or Cylindrical Surfaces. US743293A • 1903-11-03 Rotary engine. US758321A • 1904-04-26 Rotary-Motor. US777832A • 1904-12-20 Resilient Wheel. US1015761A • 1912-01-23 Internal-Combustion Engine. US1068781A • 1913-07-29. K D Motor Company Packing-Ring. US1086299A • 1914-02-03. K D Motor Company Internal-Combustion Engine. US1132858A • 1915-03-23. K D Motor Company Improvement in paper-feeding machines. US US109224A. Granted 1870-11-15 Improvement in paper-bag machines. US US220925A. Granted 1879-10-28. Paper-bag machine. USRE9202E. Granted 1880-05-18. Skirt-protector. US US282646A. Granted 1883-08-07, with Harriet M. Macfarland. Clasp. US US306692A. Granted 1884-10-14. Spit. US US311662A. Granted 1885-02-03. Sole-cutting machine. US US436358A. Granted 1890-09-16. Machine for cutting shoe soles. US US436359A. Granted 1890-09-16. Sole cutting machine. US US444982A. Granted 1891-01-20. Sole-cutting machine. US US494784A. Window frame and sash. US US519333A. Granted 1894-05-08. With Albert B. Harrington Winding reel. US US521413A. Granted 1894-06-12. With Robert D. Evans And John S. Lockwood. Machine for cutting boots or shoe soles. US US524286A. Granted 1894-08-07. Numbering mechanism. US US527205A. Granted 1894-10-09. With Charles S. Gooding. Reel. US US527368A. Granted 1894-10-09.

Works about her Lynn Ng Quezon: Mattie and the Machine: A Novel. Santa Monica Press, 2022. 264pp. . (Young adult novel for ages 12+. Winner of the 2023 Grateful American Book Prize for excellence in literature about American History for grades 8-10.) Emily Arnold McCully: Marvelous Mattie: How Margaret E. Knight Became an Inventor. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006. 32pp. . (Children's book which was recognized as one of the "best feminist books for young readers, 2007," awarded by the Amelia Bloomer Project of the Feminist Task Force of the American Library Association.) DiMeo, Nate. no. 116,842 The Memory Palace Podcast Episode 78, November 5, 2015. (Podcast detailing Margaret Knight, her early life, and inventions.) Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie: Women in science: antiquity through the nineteenth century: a biographical dictionary with annotated bibliography. 3rd ed. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA 1991, , p. 110 f. Sam Maggs: Wonder Women: 25 Innovators, Inventors, and Trailblazers who Changed History, published by Quirk Books on October 24, 2016, distributed by Penguin House. (A section detailing Knight's most notable inventions and her life.)