1846 - Elias Howe Jr.'s Sewing Machine Patent Model
date: label: model constructed
content: before 1846-09-10
label: patent date
content: 1846-09-10
name: label: inventor
content: Howe, Jr., Elias
label: model maker
content: Howe, Jr., Elias
notes: label: Description
content: Sewing Machine Patent Model. Patent No. 4,750, issued September 10, 1846. Elias Howe Jr. of Cambridge, Massachusetts.
label: Description
content: While working as a journeyman machinist, Elias Howe Jr. wrestled for years to find a way to mechanize sewing. With the family pinched by poverty, his wife sewed for others by hand at home. Watching her sew, Howe visualized ways to mechanize the process. In 1845, he built his first sewing machine and soon constructed an improved model, which he carried to the Patent Office in Washington to apply for a patent. He received the fifth United States patent (No. 4,750) for a sewing machine in 1846.
label: Description
content: Howe’s model used a grooved and curved eye-pointed needle carried by a vibrating arm. The needle was provided with thread from a spool. Loops of thread from the needle were locked by a second thread carried by a shuttle, which moved through the loop by means of reciprocating drivers.
label: Description
content: The cloth hung vertically, impaled on pins on a metal baster plate. The baster plate moved intermittently under the needle by means of a toothed wheel. The length of each stitching operation depended upon the length of the baster plate, and only straight seams could be sewn. When the end of the baster plate reached the position of the needle, the sewing was stopped. The cloth was removed from the baster plate, and the plate was moved back to its original position. The cloth was repositioned on the pins and the process was repeated until the sewing was finished. This resulted in an imperfect way to sew, but it marked the beginning of successful mechanized sewing.
label: Description
content: Howe’s patent claims were upheld in court to allow his claim to control the combination of the eye-pointed needle with a shuttle to form a lockstitch. Howe met with limited success in marketing his sewing machine. Subsequent inventors patented their versions of sewing machines, some of which infringed on Howe’s patent. He quickly realized his fortune depended on defending his patent and collecting royalty fees from sewing machine manufacturers. These royalty licenses granted companies the right to use the Howe patent on their machines.
label: Description
content: In 1856, after years of lawsuits over patent rights, Elias Howe and three companies, Wheeler & Wilson, Grover and Baker, and I. M. Singer, formed the first patent pool in American industry. The organization was called the Sewing Machine Combination and/or the Sewing Machine Trust. This freed the companies from expensive and time-consuming litigation and enabled them to concentrate on manufacturing and marketing their machines.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: Place Made
content: United States: Massachusetts, Cambridge
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: National Treasures exhibit
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: Kendrick, Kathleen M. and Peter C. Liebhold. Smithsonian Treasures of American History
label: Related Publication
content: Janssen, Barbara Suit. Icons of invention : American patent models
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.T06050
label: catalog number
content: T.6050
label: patent number
content: 004750
label: accession number
content: 48865
objectType: label: Object Name
content: sewing machine patent model
label: Object Type
content: Patent Model
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (base material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 12 in x 9 in x 11 in; 30.48 cm x 22.86 cm x 27.94 cm