Today in Technology History

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February 14

The inventor responsible for paper bags with flat bottoms was born 165 years ago.

Margaret E. Knight was born on February 14, 1838. She spent her whole life in New England. She was mechanically inclined, and built sleds and kites for her brothers. Years later, this is how she described her childhood: "I never cared for things that girls usually do. Dolls never had any charms for me. I couldn't see the sense of coddling bits of porcelain with senseless faces."

When Knight's brothers went off to work in a cotton mill, she brought them food for lunch. Soon she had a job alongside them. One day, she saw a worker get hurt when a sharp part of his loom, a steel-tipped shuttle, fell off and stabbed him. Knight then invented a simple safety device to prevent similar accidents. That device soon became a standard part of looms -- and Knight's career as an inventor thus began at the tender age of 12.

In the late 1860s, Knight invented a machine that could make strong paper bags with flat bottoms -- much more useful than the V-shape then prevalent. In 1870, she was granted a patent for her machine, but only after a legal dispute with another inventor. (We will discuss that dispute in more detail in a future tech history message.)

Knight also obtained patents for a numbering machine, a clasp for robes, a window frame and sash, a machine for cutting shoe soles, and a rotary engine. Some of her later work was related to automobiles. In total, Knight obtained about two dozen patents, making her one of the most prolific inventors of her era. She died in 1914 at the age of 76.

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