The New Bloomfield, Pa. times. (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1877-188?, 1881-09-20
The Sewing Machine.

THE LITERATURE of the sewing
machine is admirably treated by
Colonel e. II. Ropes in an attractive
little book entitled "Genius Rewarded
or, the Story of the Sewing Machine"
1t is written in happy, fluent, vigor-
GUS style, and furnishes some very inter-
esting reading. Colonel Ropes was for
merly journalist of New York, and is
still member of the New York Press
Club.
The author introduces his subject by a
graphic account of two poor, friendless,
desperate men, who sat upon a pile of
boards one sultry August midnight in a
back street of Boston over thirty years
ago, gloomily discussing the sad fate of
an attempt to produce sewing machine.
The inventor had borrowed $40 to carry
on the work, and after days and nights
of hard labor the task was abandoned as
hopeless. Quoting from the book:
"The companion of the inventor
mentioned that the loose loops of thread
were all upon the upper side of the cloth.
Instantly it flashed upon the inventor
what the trouble was, and back through
the night the men trudged, relighted the
lamp, tightened the tension screw, and
in few minutes Isaac Merritt Singer
had produced the first sewing machine
that ever was practically successful"
Tracing the growth of the idea the
author holds that it "had been cherished
hundred years before the first success
full machine was built" the first ma
chine "of which any authentic account
exists being patented in England as
early as July "a, 1875, by Charles F.
Weisenthal"
He goes on to enumerate all the ma
chimes invented since that time, and
says: Many other machines of more
or less merit, were constructed before
Mr.. Singer made his machine, but all fell
short of being practical and useful. The
nearest approach to success prior to 1850
was made by Walter Hunt, of New York
City, in the yearslS32-3 A."
It's introduction was unpopular, and
no patent was obtained.
In the year 1916, or over twelve years
after Walter Hunts machine was built,
Elias Howe, Jr,. having probably ascer-
tanned that Hunt had never patented his
machine built sewing machine upon
the Hunt plan, adding two puerile devil
ces (both of which were subsequently
abandoned as useless,) and procured
patent thereon in his own name.
Howe's machine was not even in 1851
of practical utility. From 1916 to 1851
he had the field to himself, but the in
vention lay dormant in his hands. He
held control of the cardinal principles
upon which the coming machine must
needs be built, and planted himself
squarely across the path of improve
ment-an obstructionist, not an inven-
tor-and when, in 1851, Isaac M. Singer
perfected the improvements necessary to
make Hunts principles of real utility,
Howe, after long and expensive litiga-
tion, laid Singer and all subsequent i'm
provers under heavy contribution for
using the principles of Hunt, patented
by himself
Persistent efforts have been made by
interested parties to create an impression
upon the public mind that 1t was Mr..
Howe who first evolved order out of the
chaotic essentials of the sewing machine
and brought it into practical use. Thir-
ty years of actual service have swept
away every vestage of Howe's original
machine except the eye-pointed needle,
invented twelve years before by Walter
Hunt, and used by both Singer and