Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1858-07-23

1HE ORIGIN OF THE SEWING MACHINE.-The
student of mechanics, when, with all his
natural taste and his acquired love whetted
to the keenest point, he dwells upon the his
tory OF great inventions, involuntarily pauses
and permits his mind to picture little boy
sitting in the corner of an d-fashioned
hearth, studiously gazing upon the lifting
cover OF that crane-suspended kettle, as he
reads how it was that Fulton was first led to
think of propelling vessel against wind and
tide by the expansive force Of steam. And
as naturally he pauses longer, until another
picture, embodying the wealth of the idea,
floats in perspective before him. He sees
myriad of black hulks, with foreheads OF
hame by. night and canopies Of smoke by day
ae ahe ieaR.ng courssrs of the Deep animated by
| rivers of the world whiten into foam at its
beat-and where heaven gave no stream to
turn wheel, the heaven-born conception has
atoned the want, and you may hear the song
OF hammer and Of anvil, welding beneath its
touch the machinery that does the world s
work this day.
And the hour is fast drawing near, when
that student will also pause as he comes to
the name of Allen Wilson. 1t is now a mat
ter of recorded decision in the patent Office at
| Washington, that he was the first man known
to science, as having taught the world how
| by machinery to sew curved as well as
straight seam at the will of the operator. lie
did it here in Massachusetts, in the year 1850.
And any one who will take the trouble, as
they pass Main street, to call upon our friend
Mr. Lee, the agent of the Wheeler & Will
son Manufacturing Company" may compre-
hend in moment the sim pie and beautiful
idea he developed, and made the sewing ma
chine thereby practical necessity in every
family. For this, without injustice to anv.
it is fair to say that, when all other names
have been lost in the mercenary crowd, side
by side with that of Howe, the father of all
shall stand the names of " Wheeler and Will
son" the one the first to invent for, and the
other the first to give to, the world, ma
chine made for the house.
Already, that little contrivance is working
out its benefcent use, wherever beneath the
fretted sky civilized man hath home. Five
years more, and it will be 50 common, that
II child's painted toy will be more noticed
by the thoughtless. But the archives of the
patent office will keep the model and wise
and learned men will pass the names to pos
terity, and universal mankind will garner
the wealth Of toll spared and time saved
And the pausing student will also note it
In his memory, what it was that fired the
genius of Wilson. Within sight of his shop,
three orphaned sisters sat and sewed Tor
bread. The younger stitched the elders
winding sheet, and the other stitched her
own. One by one, pale consumption claim
ed them, and they dropped as the red leaves
OF autumn drop. As the mechanic helped
to lower the last within her narrow house,
shedding upon her bier the honest tear of
neighbor and Of friend, he resolved that
way should be found, whereby the slavery
o the needle should end" They did not
die in vain; for before their graves We're
grassed, the village paper, that announced
their death, contained a paragraph describ-
ing how its editor had seen machine that
sewed a curved seam, the first ever made in
the world.
So humanity blossoms from decay, and
sympathy festoons the chambers of invention
with garlands too green to fade, too useful to
be lost.-Spnnqtfeld Rep.