Margaret Ethridge Knight

Margaret Ethridge Knight was born on February 14, 1838 to parents Hannah Teal and James Knight. When she was growing up, she lost her father, and they all called her Marvelous Mattie. Also she had two older brothers Charlie and Jim. When she grew up to around 7 to 8 years old she earned, by working in the factories, more money then her brothers. Three years later her and her family moved to Manchester, New Hampshire. The move was hard on her. Seven years later she moved away from home. When she was 60 the first car ever invented. But unfortunately she died 16 years later. On October 12, 1941 in Farmingdale, Massachusetts was the dreadful day Margaret died.

The stop device was the first invention to get Margaret famous. The great thing about that is she made it when she was only 11 years old! Well only 7 years later her inventions started again with the idea of the attachment of the paper bag. She did that so it can have a sturdy and can hold heavier items. Charles Annan was the name of the man who patented her idea before she did. So as I mentioned before they went to court and since Margaret was the actual inventor of the item she won. She won by showing them her drawings, models and notes. After winning the court battle a man offered her $50,000 and she it down! Now if I was her I would have taken it. Also she made a clasp for the robe when she was 46 years old, a skirt and dress when she was 45 years old and a spit (used as a cooking tool. like cob bobs) also was invented by her when she was 47 years old. All of her inventions together are a lot so all together there are 27 patents together at the end of her life time.

The stop device was invented because when she was younger she worked at a factory and one of the pieces flew off and hit one of the other young girls and she almost died. Margaret didn’t want any one else getting hurt so that’s the reason why she invented the stop device.

Something’s that is admirable about Margaret is she invented a attachment to the paper bag and never got paid for it until the very end. Another thing that I found admirable was she won a court battle against a 30 year old man when she was only 18 years old. Last was she given up $50,000.

I learned that something from her. It is, it doesn’t matter how old you are or your size, you can still make a difference.