1853 - William Wickersham's Patent Model of a Sewing Machine (leather)
date: label: model constructed
content: before 1853-04-19
label: patent date
content: 1853-04-19
name: label: inventor
content: Wickersham, William
notes: label: Description
content: Sewing Machine Patent Model
label: Description
content: Patent No. 9,679 issued April 19, 1853
label: Description
content: William Wickersham of Lowell, Massachusetts
label: Description
content: Wickersham exhibited his boot and leather sewing machine at the “New York Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations” in 1853. His address in the catalogue for the exhibition was listed as 20 Bulfinch Street, Boston.
label: Description
content: In 1853 and 1854, Butterfield & Stevens Mfg. Co., of Boston.
label: Description
content: Massachusetts, manufactured sewing machines based on his patent of April 19, 1853. In his patent specification, Wickersham wrote, “My machine for sewing cloth, leather, or other material is calculated to sew either a chain stitch (the formation of which is well understood) or a stitch . . . formed of two threads, and so that the loops of one . . . shall alternately pass through or be interlocked with those of the other . . . .” Although he mentions sewing cloth, it was for sewing leather for boots and shoes that his sewing machine became important. Wickersham’s patents introduced the method that allowed for the use of sewing leather with waxed thread. The development of mechanisms that would allow for sewing with wax thread was crucial to the industrialization of the shoe making industry.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Massachusetts
topic: label: classified
content: Patent Models
label: classified
content: Invention
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Textiles
label: See more items in
content: Patent Models, Sewing Machines
label: See more items in
content: Sewing Machines
label: See more items in
content: Textiles
label: See more items in
content: Patent Models
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: Janssen, Barbara Suit. Patent Models Index
label: Related Publication
content: Cooper, Grace Rogers. The Sewing Machine: Its Invention and Development
label: Related Web Publication
content: http://www.sil.si.edu/DigitalCollections/HST/Cooper/CF/view.cfm
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: TE.T06117
label: catalog number
content: T06117.000
label: patent number
content: 009679
label: accession number
content: 89797
objectType: label: Object Name
content: sewing machine patent model
label: Object Type
content: Patent Model
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 14 in x 12 in x 15 in; 35.56 cm x 30.48 cm x 38.1 cm