Draft:Luther Crowell

Luther Crowell (1840-1903) was an American inventor who specialized in designing folding objects and machines that could manufacture them. His most famous patent was for a machine that manufactured flat-bottom paper bags. All-in-all, Crowell was granted over 280 patents in his lifetime.

Family history
Crowell was born on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in the town of West Dennis, to Francis Baker Crowell and Mehitable Hall Crowell. His ancestors had first settled there in the mid 1600s.

Patents
After stints as a physician's assistant and the merchant marine, Crowell moved to Boston where he earned his first patent, no. 35,437, for a aerial machine.

Crowell's most enduring invention has been the square-bottomed paper bag, or more specifically, a machine that could efficiently manufacture it.