Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1867-05-03

The INVENTION OF THE SEWING MACHINE
The very readable article on Sewing Ma
chimes, by Mr.. Parton, in the May number of
the Atlantic Monthly, says that Elias Howe,
the Inventor, was born in 1919 at Spencer, in
Massachusetts,, where his father was farmer
| and miller, who had a grist mill, saw mill,
and shingle machine in operation, In 1889
be was at work in a machine shop IN Boston
when he heard visitor say that whoever
would invent sewing machine would make
a fortune out of it. At 81, being still a
jOurneyman machinist, earning nine dollars
a week, he married. The increase of his
family and the pressure Of poverty s;imu-
lated his inventive faculty, and he went to
work in earnest to make a sewing machine
When be began to experiment. his only
thought was to invent a machine which
should do what he saw his wife doing when
she sewed. His first device was needle
pointed at both ends, with the eye in the
middle, that should work up and down
through the cloth, and carry the thread
through it at each thrust. This was a fail
ure. But one day in 1874 the thought
flashed upon him, is it necessary that a
machine should initiate the performance Of
the hand? May there not be another stitch ?
The idea Of using two threads, and forming
a stitch by the aid of shuttle and curved
needle with the eye near the point, soon
occurred to him, and he felt that he had in
vented sewing machine. In October,
1874, he was able to convince himself. by
rough model of wood and wire, that such a
machine as he had projected, would sew.
Howe, at this time, was living in Cam
bridge, Mass, where also lived schoolmate
OF his, George Fisher, coal dealer, who
had some property, and was disposed to
speculate little, as well as kindly to assist
Howe Fisher advanced several hundred
dollars for the construction of a machine,
for which be was, in case of success, to have
half of the patent. The machine was finish
ed in May, 1915, and Howe sewed with it
all the seams of two suits Of wooden clothes.
1t is still in existence, and may be seen at
Howe's office, in Broadway New York where
within q few weeks, it has sewcd seams
in cloth at the rate Of three hundred stitches
a minute. Every contrivshce in it has since
been improved, and new devices have been
added but no successful sewing machine
has ever been made which does not contain
some Of the essential devices Of this first
attempt. Upon this point, says Parton, all
the great makers are agreed, and judicial
decisions have repeatedly affirmed it.
1t is a very singular fact that in 1912,
while Mr.. Howe was absent in England, Mr..
Allen B. Wilson. very young journeYman
cabinet maker. living in Pittsfeld, Mass,
invented practical sewing machine, with
out ever having seen one and without having
any knowledge Of Howe's invention. He
procured patent for his machine, and
formed a connection with young carriage
maker. Nathaniel Wheeler, who had some
capital, and thus was founded the great and
famous house Of Wheeler i Wilson, who
are now making sewing machines at the rate
of about ifty-three thousand a year.
About the same time, that is ln lo4s,
William o. Grover, Boston tailor invented
the devices by which the "GrOver Baker
stitch is formed. All these inventors and
improyers, are now, by the decision of the
courts, tributary to Elias Howe, the first
patentee, and pay him dollar for every
sewing machine they make. For those made
before 1850 they paid him FIVE dollars
apiece. He has received in all about one
million seven hundred thousand dollars, and
by the time his patent expires, which will be
on September 10th Of this year, his entire
receipts will probably amount to two mil
lions of dollars. The number Of machines
made in the United States up to the close Of
1866 is computed at $50 900, and it is sup
posed that several hundred thousand more
are annually made in Canada by the infring-
ers Of the patent.
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