It is a remarkable fact that some of the greatest and most useful
inventions have been bitterly opposed by the very persons whom
they were designed to help. The bowmen of olden time resented the
introduction of guns; the stage coach lines tried in every way to block
the building of railways; and Elias Howe, the inventor of one of the
greatest labor saving devices in the world, the sewing machine, was
ridiculed, discouraged, and denounced as an enemy of poor sewing women,
the ones whose toil he was seeking to lighten. They imagined that with
the introduction of the sewing machine their occupation would be taken
away.
Elias Howe was born at Spencer, Massachusetts, on July 9, 1819, one of
a family of eight children. His father was a farmer and miller, and
Elias’ early years were spent in the mill. At the same time he managed
to pick up a smattering of education.
He went to Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1835, to work in a cotton mill.
Two years later he obtained a place in a Cambridge machine shop,
in which his cousin, Nathaniel P. Banks, afterward governor of
Massachusetts, was also employed.
Howe married at the age of twenty-one and moved to Boston. It was there
that the first germs of his great idea became implanted in his brain.
To increase the family income his wife did sewing at night. As Howe
watched her slowly and laboriously stitching a seam, his inventive mind
sought and sought for some way to decrease her toil. He had a natural
bent for mechanics, and it was not long before he had constructed the
first crude sewing machine.
This was in October, 1844. But, although he now had his idea, he lacked
money to prove its value. However, a man named Fisher in Cambridge
liked his invention, and agreed to board Howe and his family and to
advance $500 in return for a half interest in the patent. By the middle
of next May, Howe had constructed a machine which did sewing that
promised to outlast the cloth.
But the invention was opposed everywhere in America. Finally, in 1846,
Howe’s brother Amasa went to England, and managed to sell the English
rights in the machine for $1,250 to a William Thomas. This man also
gave Elias Howe a place in his factory at $15 a week. But he treated
the inventor shamefully, and Howe threw up the situation. He sent his
family back to America ahead of him, and then returned himself. He
landed in New York with less than a dollar in his pocket, and was met
with the news that his wife was dying of consumption at Cambridge. He
managed to borrow some money, and reached her side just before she
passed away.
These were Howe’s darkest days. Imitations of his machine were
infringing on his patent, and he had to begin several suits to
establish his rights. He and another man now began to manufacture
sewing machines in a small way. It was during this time that the
“sewing machine riots” took place; but soon the real value of the
invention was seen, and all opposition ceased.
Brighter times began for the inventor. He won his patent suits, and
by 1863 his royalties were estimated at $4,000 a day! At the Paris
Exposition of 1867 he was awarded a gold medal and the ribbon of the
Legion of Honor. His last years were happy ones. He died on October 3,
1867.
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 29, SERIAL No. 29
[Illustration: SAMUEL F. B. MORSE]
_GREAT AMERICAN INVENTORS_
_Samuel F. B. Morse_