Charles Stilwell was an American inventor who manufactured the paper bag.

Biography

Stilwell was born and raised in Fremont,

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. When the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

broke out he joined the

Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

. When the conflict ended he returned to his hometown and got a job as a

mechanical engineer Mechanical may refer to: Machine * Machine (mechanical), a system of mechanisms that shape the actuator input to achieve a specific application of output forces and movement * Mechanical calculator, a device used to perform the basic operations of ...

. His hobby, which later turned into a future occupation, was the manufacturing of improved

paper bag A paper bag is a bag made of paper, usually kraft paper. Paper bags can be made either with virgin or recycled fibres to meet customers’ demands. Paper bags are commonly used as shopping carrier bags and for packaging of some consumer go ...

. During that time, paper and grocery bags already existed, but they were cumbersome to store and fold. Adding to it, they had a

v-shaped Many shapes have metaphorical names, i.e., their names are metaphors: these shapes are named after a most common object that has it. For example, "U-shape" is a shape that resembles the letter U, a Gaussian function, bell-shaped curve has the shap ...

bottom, which prevented them from standing still while someone is packing. On June 12, 1883 he got a grant on a patent to invent a machine that will manufacture a square-bottom bag, from the

U.S. Patent Office The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is an agency in the U.S. Department of Commerce that serves as the national patent office and trademark registration authority for the United States. The USPTO's headquarters are in Alexa ...

. He named his invention ''S.O.S.'' or the Self-Opening Sack because of the bag's ability to remain standing and open without the person's assistance. His invention improved the

s for millions of people nationwide.

References

19th-century American inventors People from Fremont, Ohio Year of birth missing Year of death missing {{US-inventor-stub