ELIAS HOWE, JR.
One of the busiest parts of the busy thoroughfare of Broadway, in the
city of New York, is the point of its intersection with Fourth Street.
Thousands and tens of thousands of people pass and repass there daily,
but few ever pause to look at the curious machine which stands in the
window of the shop at the north-west corner of these two streets. This
machine, clumsy and odd-looking as it is, nevertheless has a history
which makes it one of the most interesting of all the sights of the
great city. It is the first sewing-machine that was ever made.
ELIAS HOWE, its maker, was born in the town of Spencer, Massachusetts,
in 1819. He was one of eight children, and it was no small undertaking
on the part of his father to provide a maintenance for such a household.
Mr. Howe, Sen., was a farmer and miller, and, as was the custom at that
time in the country towns of New England, carried on in his family some
of those minor branches of industry suited to the capacity of children,
with which New England abounds. When Elias was six years old, he was
set, with his brothers and sisters, to sticking wire teeth through the
leather straps used for making cotton cards. When he became old enough
he assisted his father in his saw-mill and grist-mill, and during the
winter months picked up a meager education at the district school. He
has said that it was the rude and imperfect mills of his father that
first turned his attention to machinery. He was not fitted for hard
work, however, as he was frail in constitution and incapable of bearing
much fatigue. Moreover, he inherited a species of lameness which proved
a great obstacle to any undertaking on his part, and gave him no little
trouble all through life. At the age of eleven he went to live out on
the farm of a neighbor, but the labor proving too severe for him, he
returned home and resumed his place in his father's mills, where he
remained until he was sixteen years old.
When at this age, he conceived an ardent desire to go to Lowell to seek
his fortune. One of his friends had just returned from that place, and
had given him such a wonderful description of the city and its huge
mills, that he was eager to go there and see the marvel for himself.
Obtaining his father's consent, he went to Lowell, and found employment
as a learner in one of the large cotton-mills of the city. He remained
there two years, when the great financial disaster of 1837 threw him out
of employment and compelled him to look for work elsewhere. He obtained
a place at Cambridge, in a machine-shop, and was put to work upon the
new hemp-carding machinery of Professor Treadwell. His cousin, Nathaniel
P. Banks, afterward governor of Massachusetts, member of Congress, and
major-general, worked in the same shop with him, and boarded at the same
house. Howe remained in Cambridge only a few months, however, and was
then given a place in the machine-shop of Ari Davis, of Boston.
At the age of twenty-one he married. This was a rash step for him, as
his health was very delicate, and his earnings were but nine dollars per
week. Three children were born to him in quick succession, and he found
it no easy task to provide food, shelter, and clothing for his little
family. The light-heartedness for which he had formerly been noted
entirely deserted him, and he became sad and melancholy. His health did
not improve, and it was with difficulty that he could perform his daily
task. His strength was so slight that he would frequently return home
from his day's work too much exhausted to eat. He could only go to bed,
and in his agony he wished "to lie in bed forever and ever." Still he
worked faithfully and conscientiously, for his wife and children were
very dear to him; but he did so with a hopelessness which only those who
have tasted the depths of poverty can understand.
[Illustration: HOWE'S FIRST IDEA OF THE SEWING-MACHINE.]
About this time he heard it said that the great necessity of the age was
a machine for doing sewing. The immense amount of fatigue incurred and
the delay in hand-sewing were obvious, and it was conceded by all who
thought of the matter at all that the man who could invent a machine
which would remove these difficulties would make a fortune. Howe's
poverty inclined him to listen to these remarks with great interest. No
man needed money more than he, and he was confident that his mechanical
skill was of an order which made him as competent as any one else to
achieve the task proposed. He set to work to accomplish it, and, as he
knew well the dangers which surround an inventor, kept his own counsel.
At his daily labor, in all his waking hours, and even in his dreams, he
brooded over this invention. He spent many a wakeful night in these
meditations, and his health was far from being benefited by this severe
mental application. Success is not easily won in any great undertaking,
and Elias Howe found that he had entered upon a task which required the
greatest patience, perseverance, energy, and hopefulness. He watched his
wife as she sewed, and his first effort was to devise a machine which
should do what she was doing. He made a needle pointed at both ends,
with the eye in the middle, that should work up and down through the
cloth, and carry the thread through at each thrust; but his elaboration
of this conception would not work satisfactorily. It was not until 1844,
fully a year after he began the attempt to invent the machine, that he
came to the conclusion that the movement of a machine need not of
necessity be an imitation of the performance of the hand. It was plain
to him that there must be another stitch, and that if he could discover
it his difficulties would all be ended. A little later he conceived the
idea of using two threads, and forming a stitch by the aid of a shuttle
and a curved needle with the eye near the point. This was the triumph of
his skill. He had now invented a perfect sewing-machine, and had
discovered the essential principles of every subsequent modification of
his conception. Satisfied that he had at length solved the problem, he
constructed a rough model of his machine of wood and wire, in October,
1844, and operated it to his perfect satisfaction. His invention is
thus described:
"He used a needle and a shuttle of novel construction, and combined them
with holding surfaces, feed mechanism and other devices, as they had
never before been brought together, in one machine One of the principal
features of Mr. Howe's invention is the combination of a grooved needle,
having an eye near its point, and vibrating in the direction of its
length, with a side-pointed shuttle for effecting a locked stitch, and
forming, with the threads, one on each side of the cloth, a firm and
lasting seam not easily ripped. The main action of the machine consists
in the interlocking of the loop, made by the thread carried in the point
of the needle through the cloth, with another thread passed through this
loop by means of a shuttle entering and leaving it at every stitch. The
thread attached to this shuttle remains in the loop and secures the
stitch as the needle is withdrawn to be ready to make the next one. At
the same time the cloth, held by little projecting pins to the baster
plate, is carried along with this by what is called the 'feed motion'
just the length of a stitch, the distance being readily adjusted for
finer or coarser work. .... The cloth is held in a vertical position in
the machine, and the part to be sewed is pressed against the side of the
shuttle-race by a presser plate hinged on its upper edge, and capable of
exerting any required pressure on the cloth, according as the adjusting
screw that regulates it is turned. A slot, or perforation through the
plate, also extended through the side of the shuttle-race near the
bottom, admits the passage of the needle; and when this is pushed in the
shuttle can still pass freely over it. The shuttle is pushed one way and
then the other through its race or trough by picker staves. The thread
for the needle is supplied by a bobbin, the movement of which is
checked by a friction band, this securing the proper tension, and the
slack of the thread is duly taken up by a suitable contrivance for the
purpose. Thus, all the essential features of the most approved
sewing-machine were first found in that of Mr. Howe; and the machines of
later date are, in fact, but modifications of it."
At this time, he had abandoned his work as a journeyman mechanic, and
had removed to his father's house. Mr. Howe, Sen., had established in
Cambridge a machine-shop for the cutting of strips of palm-leaf used in
the manufacture of hats. Elias and his family lived under his father's
roof, and in the garret of the house the half-sick inventor put up a
lathe, where he did a little work on his own account, and labored on his
sewing-machine. He was miserably poor, and could scarcely earn enough to
provide food for his family; and, to make matters worse, his father, who
was disposed to help him, lost his shop and its contents by fire. Poor
Elias was in a most deplorable condition. He had his model in his head,
and was fully satisfied of its excellence, but he had not the money to
buy the materials needed in making a perfect machine, which would have
to be constructed of steel and iron, and without which he could not hope
to convince others of its value. His great invention was useless to him
without the five hundred dollars which he needed in the construction of
a working model.
In this dilemma, he applied to a friend, Mr. George Fisher, a coal and
wood merchant of Cambridge, who was a man of some means. He explained
his invention to him, and succeeded in forming a partnership with him.
Fisher agreed to take Howe and his family to board with him while the
latter was making the machine, to allow his garret to be used as a
workshop, and to advance the five hundred dollars necessary for the
purchase of tools and the construction of a model. In return for this he
was to receive one-half of the patent, if Howe succeeded in patenting
his machine. About the first of December, 1844, Howe and his family
accordingly moved into Fisher's house, and the little workshop was set
up in the garret. All that winter he worked on his model. There was
little to delay him in its construction, as the conception was perfectly
clear in his mind. He worked all day, and sometimes nearly all night,
and in April, 1845, had his machine so far advanced that he sewed a seam
with it. By the middle of May the machine was completed, and in July he
sewed with it the seams of two woolen suits, one for himself and the
other for Mr. Fisher. The sewing was so well done that it outlasted the
cloth.
It has been stated by Professor Renwick and other scientific men that
Elias Howe "carried the invention of the sewing-machine further on
toward its complete and final utility than any other inventor has ever
brought a first-rate invention at the first trial." Those who doubt this
assertion should examine the curious machine at the corner of Broadway
and Fourth Street, and their doubts will be dispelled; for they will
find in it all the essentials of the best sewing-machine of to-day.
Having patented his machine, Howe endeavored to bring it into use. He
was full of hope, and had no doubt that it would be adopted at once by
those who were so much interested in the saving of labor. He first
offered it to the tailors of Boston; but they, while admitting its
usefulness, told him it would never be adopted by their trade, as it
would ruin them. Considering the number of machines now used by the
tailoring interest throughout the world, this assertion seems
ridiculous. Other efforts were equally unsuccessful. Every one admitted
and praised the ingenuity of the machine but no one would invest a
dollar in it. Fisher became disgusted, and withdrew from his
partnership, and Howe and his family moved back to his father's house.
Thoroughly disheartened, he abandoned his machine. He then obtained a
place as engineer on a railroad, and drove a locomotive until his health
entirely broke down.
With the loss of his health his hopes revived, and he determined to seek
in England the victory which he had failed to win here. Unable to go
himself, he sent his machine by his brother Amasa, in October, 1846.
Upon reaching London, Amasa sought out Mr. William Thomas, of Cheapside,
and explained to him his brother's invention. He found Mr. Thomas
willing to use the machine in his business, but upon terms more
favorable to himself than to the inventor. He offered the sum of twelve
hundred and fifty dollars for the machine which Amasa Howe had brought
with him, and agreed to pay Elias fifteen dollars per week if he would
enter his service, and adapt the machine to his business of umbrella and
corset making. As this was his only hope of earning a livelihood, Elias
accepted the offer, and, upon his brother's return to the United States,
sailed for England. He remained in Mr. Thomas's employ for about eight
months, and at the end of that time left him, having found him hard,
exacting, and unreasonable.
Meanwhile his sick wife and three children had joined him in London, and
he had found it hard to provide for them on the wages given him by Mr.
Thomas; but after being thrown out of employment his condition was
desperate indeed. He was in a strange country, without friends or money,
and often he and his little family went whole days without food. Their
sufferings were very great, but at length Howe was able (probably by
assistance from home) to send his family back to his father's house. He
himself remained in London, still hoping to bring his machine into use.
It was in vain, however, and so, collecting what few household goods he
had acquired in England, he shipped them to America, and followed them
thither himself in another vessel, pawning his model and patent papers
to pay his passage. When he landed in New York he had half a crown in
his pocket, and there came to him on the same day a letter telling him
that his wife was dying with consumption in Cambridge. He could not go
to her at once, as he had no money, and was too feeble to undertake the
distance on foot. He was compelled to wait several days until he could
obtain the money for his fare to Cambridge, but at length succeeded in
reaching that place just in time to see his wife die. In the midst of
his grief he received the announcement that the vessel containing the
few household goods which he had shipped from England had been lost at
sea. It seemed to him that Fate was bent upon destroying him, so rapid
and stunning were the blows she dealt him.
But a great success was now in store for him, and he was to rise out of
his troubles to the realization of his brightest hopes. Soon after his
return home he obtained profitable employment, and, better still,
discovered that his machine had become famous during his absence.
Facsimiles of it had been constructed by unscrupulous mechanics, who
paid no attention to the patents of the^inventor, and these copies had
been exhibited in many places as "wonders," and had even been adopted in
many important branches of manufacture. Howe at once set to work to
defend his rights. He found friends to aid him, and in August, 1850,
began those famous suits which continued for four years, and were at
length decided in his favor. His adversaries made a bold resistance, but
the decision of Judge Sprague, in 1854, settled the matter, and
triumphantly established the rights of the inventor.
In 1850, Howe removed to New York, and began in a small way to
manufacture machines to order. He was in partnership with a Mr. Bliss,
but for several years the business was so unimportant that upon the
death of his partner, in 1855, he was enabled to buy out that
gentleman's interest, and thus become the sole proprietor of his patent.
Soon after this his business began to increase, and continued until his
own proper profits and the royalty which the courts compelled other
manufacturers to pay him for the use of his invention grew from $300 to
$200,000 per annum. In 1867, when the extension of his patent expired,
it is stated that he had earned a total of two millions of dollars by
it. It cost him large sums to defend his rights, however, and he was
very far from being as wealthy as was commonly supposed, although a very
rich man.
In the Paris Exposition of 1867, he exhibited his machines, and received
the gold medal of the Exposition, and the Cross of the Legion of Honor,
in addition, as a compliment to him as a manufacturer and inventor.
He contributed money liberally to the aid of the Union in the late war,
and enlisted as a private soldier in the Seventeenth Regiment of
Connecticut Volunteers, with which command he went to the field,
performing all the duties of his position until failing health compelled
him to leave the service. Upon one occasion the Government was so much
embarrassed that it could not pay the regiment of which he was a member.
Mr. Howe promptly advanced the money, and his comrades were saved from
the annoyances which would have attended the delay in paying them. He
died at Brooklyn, Long Island, on the 3d of October, 1867.
Mr. Howe will always rank among the most distinguished of American
inventors; not only because of the unusual degree of completeness shown
in his first conception of the sewing-machine, but because of the great
benefits which have sprung from it. It has revolutionized the industry
of the world, opened new sources of wealth to enterprise, and lightened
the labor of hundreds of thousands of working people. Many a pale-faced,
hollow-eyed woman, who formerly sat sewing her life away for a mere
pittance, blesses the name of Elias Howe, and there is scarcely a
community in the civilized world but contains the evidence of his
genius, and honors him as the benefactor of the human race.