Knight, Margaret (1838-1914), an American inventor, was one of the first women to earn multiple U.S. patents. She developed manufacturing machinery for making paper bags and other items. Her work won her the nicknames “the queen of paper bags” and “the female Edison,” after the famed inventor Thomas Edison. Knight had no formal engineering education.
Knight was born on Feb. 14, 1838, in York, Maine. Around age 12, she witnessed a serious industrial accident at a textile mill in New Hampshire. That incident inspired Knight to create a safety device to protect workers from dangerous machinery. Knight never patented this idea. But many factories began using her invention.
After the American Civil War (1861-1865), Knight began working for a paper bag manufacturer in Springfield, Massachusetts. At the time, paper bags with flat bottoms were costly to make. Workers had to fold and glue the paper by hand. Knight designed the first practical machine to cut, fold, and paste paper into flat-bottomed bags. A machinist named Charles Annan apparently copied Knight’s idea and applied for a patent first. Knight filed a challenge. She brought her early drawings and invention notes as evidence that she thought up the device. The patent court ruled in her favor in 1871.
Also in 1871, Queen Victoria of England recognized Knight’s hard-won patent and awarded her the Royal Legion of Honor. Knight earned at least 22 patents over a 30-year span. She developed machines to cut soles for shoes. She also developed a new type of window and ideas for rotary engines. Knight died on Oct. 12, 1914, in Framingham, Massachusetts.
