Paper bag

The paper bag is a flexible container folded and glued from paper, most often kraft paper made from virgin or recycled wood fibre, and used to carry shopping and to pack goods ranging from groceries and bottles to clothing, books and electronics. Its history as a manufactured product begins in 1852, when Pennsylvania schoolteacher Francis Wolle patented, with his brother, a machine that turned out bags in quantity, and the brothers went on to found the Union Paper Bag Company. The English papermaker James Baldwin followed in 1853 with a patent for apparatus that made square-bottomed bags, and in 1871 Margaret E. Knight designed a machine for flat-bottomed bags that could carry more than the older envelope style. Charles Stilwell's 1883 pleated-sided design, known as the self-opening sack, and Walter Deubener's corded handles of 1912 widened its use further. Heavier multi-wall paper sacks carry cement, flour and fertiliser, and because paper biodegrades readily the bag returned to favour as lightweight plastic bags were restricted.