The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-11-23

expected little. With this decision rep-
dered We still expect little or nothing"
The one great satisfaction she has and
that counts more than money is the vim
dication of all that was claimed in behalf
of her husband as the man who gave the
film to the world.
Alexander Graham Bell will go down In
history as the inventor of the telephone
and comparatively ,ttle space will be
given to Daniel Drawbaugh, yet Bell and
Drawbaugh filed thelr patent papers the
same day and after eight years of litiga-
ton in which some OF the greatest law
yers in America were engaged. three JUS
tices of the supreme court of the United
States supported Drawbaugh's claim to
priority and four supported Bell BY the
narrow margin of one vote Bell was
made rich and Drawbaugh continued poor.
Bell came on his invention by chance,
Drawbaugh by laborious study. Bell had
every advantage in an educational way
Drawbaugh worked for years in his
fathers blacksmith shop. Most of his life
Drawbaugh was hard pressed for money.
His workshop was an old tumbled-do
shack known as Eberlys mills. There
he labored year in and year out He
practically died in harness. for he worked
on the day he died and he then was "a
years old,
Elias Howe. inventor of the sewing ma
chine, was lucky in escaping the poor
house. He came from a family of in
ventors His uncle, William Howe, in
vented the truss bridge and his uncle,
Tyler Howe invented the spring bed,
without which the Harlem fiat would be
impossible. Elias Howe was lame lazy
and shftless. For years after he married
his wife supported him and their children
by sewing. His wifes patient industry
no doubt led him to think of ways to
tighten her toll and the sewing machine
was the result. When he took out his
patent he sold a half interest in its for
$500 to man from whom he rented
a garret. Eleven days after the granting
of the patent he assigned the other half
interest over to his father, nominally for
Sl000 but really to satisfy claims for
small sums the father had given to him
To support his family he became a loco
| motive engineer. He was not much of a
success as an engineer and lost his job.
That was fortunate, although he did not
think so at the time. His brother had
been sent to England to introduce the
sewing machine and thought he was doing
| wonderful piece of business WREN he
sold the English rights for $3.50. There
was one saving clause in that bill of
sale. 1t provided that the inventor should
get SIS for every machine sold Elias
fioWe, WIN MS wire ana three cnlldren,
followed his brother to England. He got
work at SIS a week manufacturing his
own machines. He was so incompetent
as a worker that he was discharged For
two years he was poverty stricken and
only escaped Jail in England by taking
the poor debtors oath Through the char
| ity of a sea captain he and his family
were brought back to America. Two
weeks after his return his wife died
| owing to the privation to which she had
! been subjected. Destitute and forlorn
| Howe drifted about from place to place
His father took pity on him and recon
veyed the half interest In the patent to
| Elias. Then Howe took advantage of the
fact that various persons were infringing
on his patent and sued them. For four
| years the suits dragged along. Howe
won most of them and collected $4,000 in
| one instance. With this money he re-
| purchased the half interest he had sold
to the owner of the garret for $500.
The sewing machine has made a thou