MATTIE AND THE MACHINE

A fictionalized account of Margaret E. Knight’s struggle to win legal rights to the invention of the paper-bag machine.

Fifteen-year-old Mattie holds a rare position at Columbia Paper: Unlike the other girls and women, she doesn’t run machines or hand-fold paper bags. She’s a mechanic. In her first job at a cotton mill, she invented a device to keep women from being injured by flying shuttles. When Mattie learns that newly hired Civil War veterans, including Frank, a mechanic she trained, are earning higher salaries simply because they are men, she makes a bet with the factory owner: If she can beat Frank in inventing a paper-bag–folding machine, the women’s wages will be raised to equal the men’s. She does so, then faces a daunting road to receiving a patent—before learning that someone has stolen her idea. Mattie takes the thief to court and wins, just as she did in real life. Quezon’s background as an engineer shows in her novel debut, as she imbues Mattie not only with technical expertise, but also a fascination for machines. The story, which takes place in New England, features an all-White cast. Several insensitive passing references to slavery strike a jarring note in an otherwise gracefully written work that covers historical views of gender roles in the workplace and family. Mattie’s relationships are well developed, the writing overall is smooth and engaging, and the historical setting very well drawn.  An appendix shows the actual patent text and drawings for Knight’s machine.

An intriguing story about a little-known woman.