In the Smithsonian’s collections, a machine model preserves a stage in the history of the paper bag. Margaret Knight presented it to show how to fold and paste flat bottom bags. The miniature object made a technical invention visible.
The model is associated with U.S. patent number 220925, obtained in 1879. It enhances an earlier invention of Knight, patented in 1871 under the number 116842. The development therefore does not come down to an idea that once appeared: the machine was reworked.
The flat bottom today seems a banal detail, but its repeated manufacture requires a precise sequence of folding and bonding. This model recalls the work hidden behind a daily object. Before carrying purchases, the bag had asked a mechanical question: how to automatically give this shape to a sheet of paper?
What we know
1879 model enhancing the 1871 patent; not a single patent dated indiscriminately.
To go to the source
References consulted on 3 October 2026. Linked pages may be in another language.
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