Who invented tea bags?

During the Tang Dynasty (618-907), in China, paper was folded and sewn into square bags to preserve the flavor of tea. The first Western tea bags were hand-sewn fabric bags; tea bag patents date as early as 1903. First appearing commercially around 1904, tea bags were successfully marketed by the tea and coffee shop merchant,  Thomas Sullivan from New York, who shipped his tea bags around the world. The tea in loose form was intended to be removed from the sample bags, but the customers found it easier to brew the tea in cups still enclosed in the bags. These days tea bags are usually made of paper fibre. The heat-sealed  paper fiber tea bag was invented by William Hermanson, one of the founders of Technical Papers Corporation of Boston. The rectangular tea bag was not invented until 1944. Prior to this, tea bags resembled small sacks.