New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-04-09
Island Park, near Albany, N. ",
September, 1865.
THE WILCOX g. GIBBS MAJ HINE
TRIUMPHANT!
Agents, No. S st. Charles st., New Orleans.
The Trial.


AT the Great Union Fair, held at Island Park,
between Albany and Troy September 10, 20, Fl,
% and 49, 1865, two premiums were offered on
Sewing Machines, one for the Best Se,cinJ Ma
chine, and the other for the Second Best-compe
tition being open to the State ~, .xg,s-
On the first day of the Fair, the Troy Agent Of
the Florence Sewing Machine Company, having,
Jointly with the Albany Agent of the same Ma
chine entered it for competition, published in the
Troy Daily Times challenge to Agents of other
Sewing Machines to meet them at said Fair and
compete with them for the Premium.
The challenge was accepted by the Troy and
Albany Agents of Wilcox g. Gibbs Machine.
And no other kind of Sewing Machine being in
competition, it was left for these two Machines,
tone representing the old double thread clock F."
or e." shuttle stitch" class, and the other the
new, single thread twisted loop stitch " c!ass,)
by this single. handed contest, to decide the
relative merits of these two classes Of Sewing
Machines.
The competitors being allowed to choose the
Judges, each party selected one, and these two
selected third-al of them practical fnac7tinists,
and two of them se,cing machine experts who,
being approved by the officers of the Fair, were
appointed Judges, as will be seen by the Official
Certificate below.
Before entering upon the trial, the following
programme for conducting it was mutually agreed
upon between the contestants, adopted by the
judges: Each party was to prepare and submit to
the judges list of the several points Of merit on
account of which superiority was claimed. These
points were to be separately considered, thoroughly
investigated and practically tested, by work done
then and there, upon each of the machines; and
AZ A. ,b; |, oh
adjudged to excel on that point"
It was also agreed that each party should be at
liberty to expose defects in the competing ma
chine, and have the right to call for tests to prove
the same.
Finally. it was agreed that the machine which,
at the conclusion of the trial. should be found to
have the greatest number of those "points,' de-
cided IN its favor, should be declared the best
SEWING MACHINE, and awarded the "FIRsr
PREMIUM"
The Agents of the Wilcox & Gibbs Machine
were assisted by Mr.. Battey, one of the Company s
General Agents, as Manager at the trial; and the
Agents of the Florence Machine, by Mr.. Tucker,
one of the best Sewing Machine experts in the
country, in the same capacity. Mr.. Tacker was
formerly connected with the Florence Manufac-
tory as Adjuster of the machines, and was prob
ably as competent to represent their machine eff
GENTLY, both in working it and advocating its
claims, as any person connected with that estab
lishment. The result of the trial was, that the
WILCOX AND GIBBS won the victory, and the prize,
by the extraordinary superiority of h.irty6ee
points, decided in its favor againts t1oo points in
favor of the Florence. 4,
Full notes were taken of the trial, including the
practical tests made, the discussions elected, and
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