They’re used worldwide by every one of us. You may be holding one right now. Or have a cabinet where you keep them neatly folded. They’re flat bottomed paper bags, and the machine that makes them was  invented by Margaret E. Knight.

 Margaret was born in 1838 in York, Maine, but when her father died while she was just a young girl the family moved to New Hampshire. Margaret did not take to the usual playthings of little girls, but instead preferred to do wood whittling and build things.

As an adult Margaret found employment at the Columbia Paper Bag Company. At that point in time, paper bags were only made like large open-topped envelopes. Shoppers would have to stuff their purchases into these odd shaped bags or carry them home in wooden crates. Flat bottomed bags were available but had to be made by hand, which made them expensive and rare. Margaret felt certain that there was not only a market for a more functional paper bag, but that she could figure out a way to make them.

With no training in engineering, at night she’d go home and draw up blueprints designing a machine that would make paper bags. Once she’d made a small working wooden model, she hired a machinist to build an iron version.

Unfortunately, while Margaret was hard at work on her invention, another employee  named Charles Annan was watching her closely. He saw her machine in the shop when it was being cast, stole it, copied it, filed for the patent and was granted it.

Refusing to let what was rightfully hers be taken, Margaret traveled to Washington with her models, drawings and a lawyer to set the record straight. This was at a time when women were not even considered equal citizens, let alone smart enough to invent a working machine. But Margaret was undeterred and refused to let her hard work be stolen from her. She fought for what belonged to her.

When the judge heard the case, Annan’s only defense to support the lie that he had invented the machine and not Margaret was that a woman could never have invented such a complicated machine.

Fortunately, truth was on Margaret’s side and after sixteen days of testimony, she was awarded her patent. So the next time someone tells you you’re not smart enough to do something because you’re female, or the cashier asks if you’d like paper or plastic, remember to thank a woman, thank Margaret E. Knight.