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Margaret Eloise Knight was an American inventor, most notably of a machine to produce flat-bottomed paper bags. She is known as the most successful female American inventor of the 19th century.

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Margaret Eloise Knight was an American inventor, most notably of a machine to produce flat-bottomed paper bags. She is known as the most successful female American inventor of the 19th century. She was so prolific that newspapers and magazines often referred to her as “Lady Edison.”

In a time before child labor laws existed, Margaret was forced to work in a factory at just 12 years old, where she witnessed a horrific accident, which propelled her to invent a safeguard to avoid similar accidents in the future - within mere months! Her concept was adopted by mills throughout the industry, but because she was so young, she received no money, credit or recognition for her invention. Entirely self taught, Margaret continued inventing in fields ranging from automobile engines to shoemaking. She also designed and patented household items, including a dress/skirt shield, a clasp for robes, and a barbecue spit for cooking meat. She also designed the first rotary engines, along with a “sleeve valve motor” — a valve mechanism for piston engines that was used in luxury cars before WWII.

Moving on to the factory where she worked making cumbersome and time-consuming envelope-shaped paper bags by hand, she sought a way to automate the process. Within a year, she invented a working model that could feed, cut and fold the paper automatically and, most important, form the squared bottom of the bag. Unsurprisingly, one of her dickhead coworkers named Charles tried to patent the device as his own. She hired a patent lawyer and took him to court. Like the stupid idiot that he was, his only reported defense was that a “woman could not possibly understand the mechanical complexities of the machine.” Margaret won her case, becoming the first woman in the US to win a patent interference lawsuit. Unfortunately, throughout her career she faced numerous thefts of her intellectual property and legal challenges to her patents and designs, but she refused to back down. Margaret was her own advocate, she did it all herself.

Margaret was enshrined in the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2006. A model of her patented machine is on display at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, and a concept version of the bag has been exhibited at the MoMa in New York. Throughout her life, she invented nearly 90 devices and obtained 27 U.S. patents. Some notable quotes of hers are: “The only things I wanted were a jack knife, a gimlet and pieces of wood.” and “I’m not surprised at what I’ve done, I’m only sorry I couldn’t have had as good a chance as a boy and been put to my trade regularly.” Her legacy is indelible.

Lifespan

1838-1914

Nationality

American

Occupations

Inventor

Era

Industrial Revolution

Born

1838 Reviewed

Died

1914 Reviewed

Tags

American, Industrial Revolution, Inventor

Themes

Science and Innovation, Global History