Have you ever heard somebody using this expression? It is not a way to refer Mrs Edison, no, it actually describes women that were able to receive patents for various products and ideas. One of them is Margaret Knight, the first women who received a U.S. Patent and who was also known as the Queen of Paper Bags.
Margaret was born in York, Maine, but spent her childhood in Manchester, New Hampshire. She had little bothers and made kites and sleds for them, which where the envy of the neighborhood. Although she only received her first patent at the age of 30, these kites can be considered her first inventions. As an adult, Margaret Knight moved to Springfield, Massachusetts, where she worked in a manufacturing company for paper bags.
While working there, she invented machinery that would automatically fold and glue the bottom of the bag to create a bottom square. But since the reaction to this improvement was not positive, Margaret moved on and founded the Eastern Paper Bag Company in 1870.
Every paper grocery bag that we can find in stores today, goes back to her inventions. She also invented a number of domestic gadget in her life like a numbering machine and a window frame and sash, patented in 1894. However, her creativity never gave her much profit. She died of pneumonia in 1914 leaving an estate valued at less than $300.
