Margaret E. Knight
Margaret E. Knight (February 14, 1838 – October 12, 1914) was an American inventor. She has been called "the most famous 19th-century woman inventor".[1]
She was born in York, Maine to James Knight and Hannah Teal. James Knight died when Margaret was a little girl. Knight went to school until she was twelve and worked in a cotton mill between ages 12 through 1856.[citation needed] In 1868, while living in Springfield, Massachusetts, Knight invented a machine that folded and glued paper to form the flat bottomed brown paper bags familiar to shoppers today.
Knight built a wooden model of the device, but needed a working iron model to apply for a patent. Charles Annan, who was in the machine shop where Knight's iron model was being built, stole her design and patented the device. Knight filed a successful patent interference lawsuit and was awarded the patent in 1871.[2] With a Massachusetts business man, Knight established the Eastern Paper Bag Co. and received royalties.
Her many other inventions included a numbering machine, window frame and sash, patented in 1894, and several devices relating to rotary engines, patented between 1902 and 1915.[3] Knight's original bag-making machine is in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C.. Margaret never married and died on October 12, 1914 at the age of 76.
She was awarded the Decoration of the Royal Legion of Honour by Queen Victoria in 1871.[4][better source needed] A plaque recognizing her as the "first woman awarded a U.S. patent" and holder of 87 U.S. patents hangs on the Curry Cottage at 287 Hollis St in Framingham. However, Knight was not actually the first female patent-holder. The first was Hannah Wilkinson Slater, wife of industrialist Samuel Slater: she invented two-ply thread, becoming in 1793 the first American woman to be granted a patent.[5] Knight was inducted in the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2006.[6]
Patents
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US109224-Improvement in paper-feeding machines (2).jpg
Improvement in paper feeding machines, 1870
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US220925-Paper bag machine (4).jpg
Improvement in paper-bag machine, 1879
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US436358-Sole cutting machine (1).jpg
Sole cutting machine, 1890
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US494784-Sole cutting machine (1).jpg
Sole cutting machine, 1893
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US521413-Reel (2).jpg
Reel, 1894
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US527205-numbering machine (1).jpg
Numbering mechanism, 1894
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US519333-Window frame with sash (1).jpg
Window frame with sash, 1894
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US716903-Compound rotary engine (2).jpg
Compound rotary engine, 1902
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US717869-Rotary engine (1).jpg
Rotary engine, 1902
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US720818-Rotary engine. (1).jpg
Rotary engine, 1902
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US743293-Automatic tool for boring or planing concave or cylindroidal surfaces (2).jpg
Automatic tool for boring or planing concave or cylindroidal surfaces, 1903
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US1068781-Internal combustion engine (2).jpg
Other media
- McCully, Emily Arnold. Marvelous Mattie: How Margaret E. Knight Became an Inventor. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006. 32pp. ISBN 0-374-34810-3. (Children's book which was recognized as one of the "best feminist books for young readers, 2007," awarded by the Amelia Bloomer Project of the Feminist Task Force of the American Library Association.)
References
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ U.S. Patent 116,842 Improvement in Paper-Bag Machines, July 11, 1871.
- ↑ "Knight, Margaret E." Encyclopædia Britannica 2005 Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Svs - article 9125831.
- ↑ Challoner, Jack. (editor) 1001 Inventions That Changed The World 2009 - Flat-bottomed Paper Bag (1868), p 381.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
