Margaret Knight

1868

Margaret Knight literally grew up in a factory. From the age of nine, she worked in cotton mills and manufacturing plants, surrounded by various machines. As an adult, she was working at a paper bag manufacturer, bundling bags together for shipping, and noticed that the process for making flat-bottomed bags was very inefficient. While other bags were assembled by machine, flat-bottomed bags had to be constructed by hand. Knight drew up designs for a flat-bottomed bag machine, constructed the parts, and within a year and a half had a working model. While her invention was at a machine shop being constructed, another man saw it, stole her idea, and patented it. Undaunted, Knight filed a lawsuit, testified in Washington, D.C., and won her case. She was awarded the patent in 1870, and she and a business partner started a company making the paper grocery bags that we know today.

Our Thoughts?
Margaret Knight is an impressive character several times over: she was a self-taught engineer, she invented an innovative bag-constructing machine, and she fought for her intellectual property rights at a time when women were considered intellectually inferior to men.