1845 - Detail

American inventor Elias Howe, working as a machinist after losing his factory job in the Panic of 1837, invents his sewing machine. Howe would patent the device on September 10, 1846.



The millenary world would never be the same, although they had no idea what was coming, and it would take twenty years to get there. There had been rudimentary machines before, four patents had previously been given, as the patent states this was an "improvement" to the sewing machine, although as Elias Howe is recognized as its primary practical inventor, the lock-stitch addition, perhaps made the biggest practical change. He had completed building the first model, but waited until the next year to approach its patent, with a second improved machine. It would have a curved eye-point needle that was grooved, on a vibrating arm, that took the thread from a spool to the needle. The cloth hung vertically on a baster plate.

The story itself from patent to production seems odd. First, Elias allowed his brother, A.B. (Amasa Bemis) Howe, to take the patent to England and sell its rights to patent there to William Thomas on December 1, 1846. In the United States, there was confusion enough. Others stated they held patent rights to similar machines; the courts intervened for eight years before Elias would prevail twice, against Walter Hunt and Issac Singer.

The patent commissioner ruled "When the first inventor allows his discovery to slumber for eighteen years, with no probability of its ever being brought into useful activity, and when its only resurrected to supplant and strangle an invention which has been given to the public, and which has been made practically useful, all reasonable presumption should be in favor of the inventor who has been the means of conferring the real benefit upon the world."

But then, oh, then, did it start to pay off. He sold the patent rights to manufacture sewing machines to other companies in a patent pool. These companies included Wheeler and Wilson, Grover and Baker, and Singer. It was known as the Sewing Machine Trust. For every one they sold, Elias Howe made $5 per machine. Can you say rich?

However, it was not only Elias Howe who became rich. Brother Amasa began his own sewing machine company, the Howe Sewing Machine Company, for no want of a better name. Elias did not want to manufacture, he wanted the royalties. Amasa paid him the standard royalty, and started manufacturing them slowly. He sold sixty in 1854; fifty-three in 1855. The standard Howe sewing machine that would be bought was likely more a creation of Amasa Howe, than Elias. Subsequent patents were in Amasa Bemis Howe's name. Production expanded after 1860. The company expanded into Europe, selling in London and Paris.

Amasa Howe now patented the improved machine in Europe, and won a prize medal at the 1862 London International Exhibition. It was advertised as "Established 1845, perfected 1862." Sales reached twenty thousand units per year by 1871.

Amasa and Elias went back in business together to awhile, but it did not last. Elias then started his own company as competition. Brotherly love, ... they should have manufactured them in Philadelphia. Elias expanded greatly, though passed in 1867, selling his company to the Stockwell Brothers. By 1868, they had surpassed Amasa Howe's and his son's company in sales. Eventually, the companies merged. By the time they closed the company in 1886, over one million units had been sold and it was said that the earnings approached $2 million dollars.

How did Elias Howe Get Started

Elias Howe was born in 1819 in the small farm town of Spencer, Massachusetts. At sixteen, he left the farm for work as an apprentice in a machine ship in Lowell. The Financial Panic of 1837 caused the economy to crumble with many people losing their jobs, including Howe. He would move to Boston to seek work and finally managed to gain employment at a machine shop that made scientific equipment, including Mariner's tools. The shop purportedly was a good place to work and banter ideas, including whether it was possible to build a sewing machine. However, Howe, who was also a disabled man, with trouble known as lameness, would lose his job in 1843, forcing his wife to sew to make ends meet. As Elias watched his wife sew their and others needs by hand, his desperation caused a wonderment ... was there really a way to mechanize it.

Fortunately for Howe, he had a friend of better means, George Fisher, who saw merit in the idea. He gave the Howe family a place to live, work on the machine, and $500 toward the enterprise in exchange for half interest in the profits. After two years thinking of a method, building models, the first working machine was completed in May 1845. To prove what it could do, he sewed two suits of clothes, one for himself and the other for George Fisher. He also tried to advertise the machine by challenging five seamstresses to a speed challenge. The machine finished five seams before any of the handmade seamstresses could finish one. How many machines did Elias sell after those stunts. None.

But Elias Howe continued, despite George Fisher losing interest, and Elias the loss of his wife. As the story states above, it would take twenty years for Howe to resolve patent issues and begin to make money.

Patent for Improvement in Sewing Machines

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.
ELIAS HOWE, JR., OF CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS.
IMPROVEMENT |N SEWING-MACHINES.

Specification forming, part of Letters Patent No. 4,760, dated September 10, 1846.

or other articles requiring to be sewed; and l do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof. ln sewing a scam with my machine twc threads are employed, one of which threads is carried through the cloth by means of a curved needle, the pointed end of which is to pass through said cloth. The needle used has the v c ve that is to receive the thread within a small distance-say, an eight-h of an inch its inner or pointed end. The other or outer end the needle is held by an arm that vibrates on a pivot or joint pin, and the curvature of the needle is such as to correspond with the length of the arm as its radius. Then the thread is carried through the cloth, which may be done to the distance of about three-fourths of an inch, the thread will be, stretched above the curved needle, something in the manner of a bow-string, leaving as small open space between the two. A small shuttle carrying a bobbin filled with silk; or thread is then made to pass entirely through this open space between the needle and the thread which it carries, and when the shuttle is returned, which is done by means of a picker-stad or shuttledriver, the thread which was carried in-by the needle is surrounded by that received from the shuttle, and as the needle is drawn out it forces that which was received from the shuttlc into the body of the cloth, and as this operation is repeated a seam is formed which has on each side of the cloth the same appearance as that given by stitching, with this peculiarity, that the thread shown on one side of the cloth is exclusively that which was given out by the needle, and the thread seen on the other side is exclusively that which was metallic plate from which these wires project has numerous holes through it, which answer the purpose of rack-teeth in enabling the plate to be moved forward by means of a pinion as the stitches are taken. The distance to which said plate is moved, and consequently the length of the stitches, may be regulated at pleasure.

ln the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a front elevation of the machine; Fig. 2, an end elevation thereof, and Fig. 3 a top view. The other iignres represent sections and parts in detail, which will be presently explained.

A is the bed or base of the machine, and B stalulards rising therefrom, which sustain the main shaft; and other parts of the apparatus. C is the main shaft, which carries the cams that operate the needle, the shuttle-drivers, and other parts of the machine. D is a flywheel, and E a winch, on said shalt. F is a bobbin on which the silk is wound that is to supply the needle. (l is the needle-arm, that carries the curved needle an end elevation, Fig. 2. The thread from the bobbin F passes round a small friction roller, I, or round a smooth groove in the situation of said roller. then up through the eye of the needle at c, which eye is situated near to the needlepoint. d, that project from the metallic plate H, which I will call the "bester-plate. This plate is shown most distinctly in the top view, Fig. 4 Then the thread is carried through the cloth by the needle a, the upper portion of said thread will be above the needle and will allow the point of the shuttle (to be presently described) to pass between them. To enable it to enter readily, the needle, after entering the cloth, is immediately drawn back to a short distance, which opens the loop slightly. The cam which operates the needle-arm being so formed as to cause such drawing back, the shuttle will, in order to give itself the necessary room, draw a portion of the thread which had been given ont by the needle through the cloth in said thread having been left in a loop or slack state for that purpose. Y Fig. 4 represents a part of the same portion of the machine that is showifiiphig. 2, but with the needle-arm down and with the needle passed through the cloth. 7 is the cloth, (This is seen most distinctly in the The cloth is stuck on the points a top view of this box with the shuttle K within it. This shuttle is in its general construction similar to the larger shuttle used in weaving, and its spool g is capable of containing an ordinary skein of silk. The shuttle-box I vis. represented as made convex on its under side, by which it is adapted to admit a baster-plate that may be in a curved form, although for most purposes a straight baster-plate may be lise-d. Tile pieces marked it are light springs above the shuttle, which bear slightly upon it and serve to steady its motion. The shuttle drivers Work on joint-pins, as shown at j, Fig. 2, there being a correspouding fixture for the drivers on the other side.

L, Fig. 3, is the eain that operates the shuttie-drivers, on the upper ends of which drivers there may be friction-rollers j. The cam L acts upon the shuttle drivers alternately. M, Fig. 5, is a sliding box fitted into the shuttle-box and moved back and forth in the rear of the shuttle by one of the drivers, and N is a corresponding sliding piece moved by the other driver and adapted to the fore or pointed end of the shuttle. The needle-arch is attached to the rock shaft O, Fig. l, which vibrates on a center pin or pivots, and from this shaft rises an arm, I. Y that carries a pin v and friction-roller, k, which enters a space, Z, in the cam Q, which space operates as a zigzag groove, and is of course so formed as to give the proper vibration to the needle arm. There is a groove or narrow channel made across the bottom of the shuttle-box to receive the needle, in order that its upper part may be even with said bottom and allow the shuttle to pass freely over it.

The baster-plate H, Fig. 3, which receives the cloth to be sewed, is furnished with a row of smallholes, m m, drilled at a regular distance from each other, serving the purpose of rack-teeth, and into these round pinion-teeth enter for the purpose of carrying the plate forward to a proper distance at every stitch. Fig. 6 shows the principal portion of the feeding apparatus as it would appear were a vertical section made through the machine in the line w a: of Fig. 3. R is a cam on the camshaft C, that vibrates an arm, S, carrying a feeding claw, T, that takes into a ratchetwheel, U, on the shaft V, which shaft crosses the bed A of the machine, its fore end being seen at V, Fig. 1. This shaft has on it near its fore end the pinion that carries the pins or teeth that take into the holes m in the baster and cause it to advance between every stitch. The length of the stitch may be regulated by regulating the play of the arm S, and this is in place effected by the regulating, screw n, Fig. 3, that moves a pin back and forth that serves as a stop to said arm. The pin is represented by the dot o, Fig. 6, and is seen at o, Figs. 2 and 3. p is a spring that retains the ratchetwheel in place as the claw is taking a new hold. q is a spring for holding the arm S against the cam.

In sewing with this machine, the thread from the bobbin F is passed over a notch, r, Fig. l, at the upper end ofthe needle-arm, a 1id is returned through the notch r. It then passes down in front of said arm, then around the roller b, and through the needle-eye. To regulate the giving out of the thread from the bobbin, friction is made on it by the semicircular clasp s, that is made to press on it by a spring, t, regulated by a tempering screw. Before the needle passes through the cloth the thread, which extends from the needle-eye to said cloth, is raised 01 drawn up by a lifting-pin, so as to form the loop or slack, which is subsequently to be drawn in by the passing of the shuttle between the thread and the needle.

W, Figs. 1 and -2, is a lifting-rod, from the side of which projects the lifting-pin a. The lifting-rod is attached at its upper end to a crank-arm, e, which works ou a shaft, w, and this shaft is made to vibrate by means of the cam w on the cam-shaft. This cam operates on a friction roller, y, ou a short arm on the inner end of the shaft 1r. The lifting rod stands in front of a plate, X, Figs. l and 2, which is attached at its upper cud to the frame of the machine, and between the lower end of this plate - and the shuttle-box the cloth is to pass. The plate X is furnished with a hinge joint at its upper end, in order that its distance from the shuttle-box may be regulated to suitcloth of different thicknesses.

Y, Fig. l, is a set-screw, by which it is held rod proceeds a guide-pin, e, that moves the lifting-rod laterally, so as to govern the action of the lifting-pin a. This guide-pull works against guide-pieces a b, affixed on the front of the plate X. The dotted lines show the groove formed by the pieces a b, along which the guide-pin is to pass spring around its shaft, or in any other convenient mode; In the position in which the, apparatus is shown in Fig. I the lifting-pin is partially raised, and will have lifted the thread. In raising it the guide-pin passes through the groove between a b, (shown by dotted lines) and when at the upper end of this groove the needle-arm acts and carries the needle through the cloth. On the side of the needle-arm there is a projecting piece, c, the inclined edge of which, coming in contact with the lifting rod, pushes iig-laterally over the angular point of the piece d, and the crankarm u descending at this moment, the lifting pin is withdrawn from the thread, which is thereby left slack to a sufficient extent for the purpose designated. From the back part of the lifting The lifting rod is carried toward the piece b by means of a spiral drawing the shuttle-thread firmly into the body of the cloth and making a perfect seam, would draw a portion of it from the spool and cause it to pass entirely through said cloth.

In Fig. 1, f/ is the outer end of a lever which is made to rise at the proper moment, and to clip the thread between it and the upper edge of the slot. This lever is seen in Fig. 2, its i'ulernnl being at h.' The rod 'i' serves to depress the inner end of said lever and to raise its outer end, the end on the cani-shaft performing this of liee. The sliding box M does not bear directly against the rear end of the shuttle-box, but has a pin, m', projecting from its fore end, which pin nets the shuttle. The pin m constitutes a part of a small lever shown separately in Fig. S. The part n of this lever is received within a suitable slot in the sliding box M, and it turns on a fulcrum pin, p. When the shuttle has passed through the loop formed by the needle, it is received upon the pin m', and, as the needle is retracted the .i lirez-nl will be drawn taut upon said pin. V At this time the head of an adjustable springs, bears against the end n of the small lever, and the force of its pressure has to be overcome before the thread escapes from the pin, which it does by moving over against ihe power of the spring. As the loop then escapes, it will (haw up the milling-thread from the shultle firmly against the cloth and cut bed it within it. The head of the spring Z passes through a mori-isc in the shuttle-box, as shown by the dotted lines. 0 is an adjusting-screw by which the force of the spring Z be regulated.

Having-thus fully described the manner in which I construct my machine for sewing seams, and shown the operation thereof, what I claim therein as new, and desire to secure by in the manner set forth, between the needle and the thread which it carries under a combination and arrangement of parts substantially the same with that described. 2. The lifting of the thread that passes through the needle-eye by means of the lifting rod W, for the purpose of forming a loop of loose thread that is to be subsequently drawn in by the passage of the shuttle, as herein fully described, said lifting rod being furnished with a lifting pin, and governed in its motions by the guide-pieces and other devices, arranged and operating substantially as described.

3. The holding of the thread that is given out by the shuttle, so as to prevent its unwinding from the shuttle-bobbin after the shuttle has passed through the loop, said thread being held by means of the lever or clipping pieee g, as herein made known, or in any other manner that is substantially the same in its operation and result.

4. The manner of arranging aud combining the small lever m n with the sliding box M, in combination with the spring-piece Z, for the purpose of tightening the stitch as the needle is retracted, as described.

The holding of the cloth to be sewed by the use of a baster-plate fnrnished with points for that purpose, and with holes enabling it to operate as a rack in the manuel set forth, thereby carrying the cloth forward and dispensing altogether with the necessity of basting the parts together.

- ELIAS HOWE. Jn.

Photo above: Engraving of Elias Howe, 1867, Harper's Weekly. Courtesy Library of Congress. Image Below: Birthplace of Elias Howe, 1912, Society Preservation of New England Antiquities. Courtesy Library of Congress. Information Source: Library of Congress; Google Patents; "The Howe Sewing Machine," Martin Gregory. International Sewing Machine Collectors' Society; 1846 - Elias Howe's Sewing Machine Patent Model," National Museum of American History, Behring Center, Smithsonian; "Invention in Cambridge, Elias Howe's Sewing Machine, Main Street Near Windsor," historycambridge.org; Wikipedia Commons.

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