History: Meet the Real Bag Lady

Brown paper bags are so ubiquitous that we take them for granted. It's time to give some kudos to the person who made them possible: a 19th-century inventor named Margaret Knight.

Consider the familiar... the flat-bottom brown paper bag that is very useful yet utterly simple.

Now, stop reading this article.

Instead, grab a sheet of thick brown paper, scissors, and some glue. Then, attempt to make a bag yourself.

Once done, resume this article...

Not so simple, huh?

In 1870, Margaret Knight of the Columbia Bag Company in Springfield, Massachusetts, was doing the same kind of puzzling over paper bags. Back then, the only paper bags that were being manufactured by machines were the narrow, envelope kind, with a single seam at the bottom. Flimsy and easily broken, with a useless pointed bottom, they were despised by merchants and shoppers alike. Because of this, the paper bag business was definitely not booming. So Margaret (who preferred to be called Maggie) Knight set out to build a better bag.

Born in 1838, Maggie had been tinkering with tools since childhood. While other girls her age were playing with dolls, Maggie excelled at making sleds and kites. She was especially fascinated by heavy machinery. At age 12, Maggie invented a stop-motion safety device for automatic looms after witnessing an accident in a textile mill where a worker nearly lost his finger. Though never patented, her invention was widely used throughout the industry.

During her 20s and early 30s, Maggie tried her hand at several occupations before being hired at the Columbia Paper Bag Company. Working alone at night in her boarding house, she designed a machine that could cut, fold, and glue in a way that would create sturdy, flat-bottom paper bags.

This time, she applied for a patent. On July 11, 1871, patent # 116842 was issued to Maggie for the "Bag Machine." Her employer was excited to use her design. Still, the male workers refused to take direction from a woman until they were convinced that Maggie was indeed the inventor of this apparatus.

Going beyond bags...

Maggie also had to fend off a challenge to her patent by a rival inventor who had spied on the construction of her first prototype. Ultimately, the court decided in Maggie's favor, and she persisted in her career.

After leaving Columbia, she cofounded the Eastern Paper Bag Company in Hartford, Connecticut, and supervised her own machine shop in Boston. Between 1871 and 1911, she received 26 patents in her own name and is thought to have contributed to more than 50 interventions patented by others. She also had built scores of unpatented devices.

Upon her death in 1914, the press lauded her as America's "female Edison."

Her most successful inventions were an easy-to-install window frame, the number-stamping machine, and a mechanical roasting spit. However, the humble paper bag remains her most significant contribution to civilization.

Even today, bag manufacturers rely on her basic concept.

So the next time you decide to brown-bag your lunch, stop and give thanks to the spirit of Maggie Knight.