Includes an Appendix with United States patent documents for Margaret E. Knight's bag machine (pages 259-264).
Summary
"Mattie and the Machine is a fictionalized yet historically accurate account of Margaret E. Knight's fight to obtain recognition as a 19th century female inventor (she would eventually be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2006). Fifteen-year-old Mattie is a mechanic at Columbia Paper's bag factory. With sales booming after the Civil War, her boss expands the formerly all-female workforce by hiring his old Army comrades, including the mechanic Frank. Sparks instantly fly between Mattie and Frank, and their romance has Mattie walking on air -- until she learns Frank and all of the other men are paid more than Mattie and her female counterparts. The boss's rationale? Men are naturally better with machines. Determined to prove him wrong, Mattie proposes a bet: If she can build a machine that fully automates their paper-bag-making process, the women will receive equal pay. If she fails, she'll resign as mechanic. The boss accepts, with one condition: Frank will also build a machine, and Mattie's must beat his."--Page 4 of cover.
