Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1894-02-23

THE INVENTORS OF THAT DAY.
Of the men to whom the credit is due To-
producing the modern sewing machine
Elias Howe took out the first patent. HI
became very rich through royalties, but HI
never produced a really permanently sue
cessfal machine.
Mory & Johnston in 1919 took out valua
Bile patents, used afterwards in all machines
but they never made a practical machine
themselves.
L. M. Singer, succeeded in organic
ing the largest, most powerful and most
successful company up to the present day.
Wheeler, OF Wheeler & Wilson, who died
i'll December last, was all able financiel
and business mali.
Baker, of Grover & Baker, was a money.
ed man who gained some notoriety by his
splendid residence near Boston. which he
facetiously called the ''Piggery." But the
real spirit in the Grover & Baker Co. was
Orlando B. Potter who died last month.
He was one Of the ablest financiers / ever
met, and | have it on the best authority
that he planned, wrote out and submitted
to Secretary Chase the whole plan Of the
present U. S. banking system.
[ must rot forget Wilson Of the Wheeler
genious Of men. He deposited many ingeni-
Gus models in the patent office, and he show
ed me many more that he never protected
by patents. | consider him one of the most
| ingenious men that ever lived.
Jas. Wilcox, OF Wilcox & Gibbs, was
no inventor himself, but was al able bust
ness man, to whom the success Of our ell
terprise is largely due. He has a son,
Charles Wilcox, who was a boy Of seven
teen when he commenced as hand in aid
lug me in constructing
MY FIRST SEWING MACHINE
in the old Masonic Hall at 715 Chestnut St.,
Philadelphia, the site now occupied by the
Equitable Building. From that day to this,
Charles Wilcox has never given his atten-
ton to anything but perfecting and i'm
proving the Wilcox & Gibbs machine, and
many of it's fine points are due to him.
How did you come to invent Sc wing
machine, Mr.. Gibbs
[ got into it purely as a matter of curl
osity. When 1 was living at Mill Point,
Pocahontas Co., w. Va, working as a
carpenter, [ saw a rough wood cut of d
Grover & Baker machine. | saw it had a
needle attached to a metal arm which
could not pass entirely through the goods,
but must go through and retreat. There was
In ,Jx 7art;ce TO oh tt,.t
there was more than one thread. [ knew
the thread must be fastened some way
underneath the goods. [ concluded from
its position that it probably had revolving
hook on the end of the shaft, which did the
work. | then invented the Wilcox &
Gibbs revolving hook as a means b. which
it could be done, and believing that that
solved the problem thought no more about
it, just as man who solves a puzzls in the
newspapers thinks no more of it. Some
months after that [ saw q Singer machine
with its shuttle and underthread. [ then
got hold of a Patent Office report describ-
ing the Grover Il Baker machine. 1 then
realized that the idea [ had formed was en-
bl1Ciy uIllclCIiU IlOIl GlUllCI. dllu COilClluCu
had a valuable invention i'll it, but like
other inventors l ran off on other ideas that
[ thought more simple and cheaper, and
took out two other patents before applied
for the patent on the Wilcox & Gibbs
hook.
GETS ACQUAINTED WITH MR.. WILCOX.
How did you get Mr.. Wilcox interested
in it?
was in Philadelphia in 1857 selling one
of my first two inventions in the Office of
Emery, Houghton & Co., when James
Wilcox came in where [ was. After ex-
aiming our machines he remarked that he
was dealer in all kinds Of new notions
and inventions and he wanted to get hold
Of a good, new one in sewing machines to
manufacture. / told him l had just gotten
out new patent and not being satisfied
with my connection with Emery, Hough-
ton & Go. I'd be glad to associate myself
with party who would bring out the ma
chine. He proposed that l should come to
his little shop in the Masonic Hall and
build model Of my machine, and his son
Charles would assist me. Charles and my
self did all the work Oh the first model, on d
foot lathe, taking, treading and turning by
turns. When it WAS completed Wilcox and
/ went into an agreement which, with mod
ifcations, has lasted till this day.
T. S. ARTHUR HELPS.
We opened our first works at Providence,
T l,ot ;c, DO a. Io
Brown & Sharp Manufacturing Co. there,
which has been continued ever since, to
make our machines. Our first machi
were put Oh the market in November, 1858.
MI. Wilcox had about $15, 900 to put in.
He expended it all and it didn't begin to
carry it through. We begun to look around
for help and T. S. Arthur, the book pub
Usher, came to our aid. He WAS brought
down to the works and saw the machine
and loaned enough money to carry us into
paying shape. Since then We have made
aOO 1T million of our machines.
THE INVENTORS HAVE PASSED AWAY.
don't think of any man-except posi-
bly, Grover-who had any prominence in the
sewing machine business previous to 1860,
| who is still living AS far as I know they
are all gone. 1t was very remarkable that
when the business first took prominence,
every man in it was the enemy of every 9th
Ell man, and the records Of the courts of
New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and the
Patent Office will show the great amount
OF litigation that was carried Oh. But
that all changed and the animosity died out.
In the last twenty years of my life, to meet
one of these old sewing machine men was
to meet friend.
AT HIS NATIVE HOME.
How did you come to settle at Raphlne !?
1 went to Raphine because [ Was Torn
aud raised there. and [ went to school in