The first recorded historical reference to grocery paper bags was made in 1630 but the use of sacks only really started to take off during the Industrial Revolution between 1700 and 1800.[citation needed]
Margaret E. Knight (1838-1914) was an employee in a paper bag factory when she invented a new machine part to make square bottoms for paper bags. Knight can be considered the mother of the grocery bag, she founded the Eastern Paper Bag Company in 1870.
On February 20, 1972, Luther Crowell also patented a machine that manufactured paper bags.