150 year old flat bottom paper bags

Flat bottom paper bags

Imagine an item that would transform the retail industry over 150 years ago and is still going strong today with very little change to it.

Yes… the humble flat bottom Kraft paper bag was born out of necessity as the retail industry boomed. the square – flat bottom paper bag, invented circa 1870 by one Luther Childs Crowell.

Although he wasn’t born in Wellfleet, Crowell became a prominent, long-time resident.  Among his inventions were an aerial machine (helicopter), a double supplement printing press, and a bottle-labelling machine. He’s a figure to remember.

Crowell did play a role in the development of machines to make the flat bottom paper bags. He received one patent for this in 1867. Five years later he devised a machine to make square-bottomed paper bags, and later, the side-seam paper bag

But the story is a bit more complicated than one inventor working alone to develop his brilliant idea. In 1852, Francis Wolle, of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania patented and built a  “Machine for Making Bags of Paper” (15 years before Crowell’s first bag patent). In 1869 Wolle and others founded the Union Paper Bag Machine Company. Many people consider Wolle to be “the” inventor.

PAYPA offer a wide selection of these paper bags for sale online at www.paypa.com.au