Today in History - 1872

Luther Crowell, the American inventor who obtained over 280 patents for printing press improvements also designed a machine for making the square-bottomed paper bag (U.S. Patent No.123,811 issued this day) still familiar in grocery stores. By 1873, he had devised a sheet-delivery and folding mechanism adopted two years later by the Boston Herald, as the first rotary folding machine that delivered newspapers complete and folded.