Part 2 (1/2)

[20] The company was located at Villefranche-sur-Saone, but no naer, _Thimonnier et la machine a coudre_ (1943), p

16

[21] See Walter Hunt's biographical sketch, p 138

[22] The earliest known reference in print to Walter Hunt's sewingby Machinery: An Exposition of the History of Patentees of Various Sewing Machines and of the Rights of the Public_ (I M Singer & Co, 1853) AMachine News_ (1880-81), vol 2, no 2, p 4; no 4, p 5; and no 8, pp 3 and 8

[23] Vol 2, no 8, p 3

[24] In the opinion and decision of C Mason, Commissioner of the Patent Office, offered on May 24, 1854, for the Hunt vs Howe interference suit, Mason stated: ”He [Hunt] proves that in 1834 or 1835 he contrived acloth with considerable success”

[25] The rebuiltto a letter to the author froer company, is believed to have been one of the er factory fire at Elizabethport, NJ, in 1890

[26] Op cit (footnote 24)

[27] EDWARD H KNIGHT, _Sewing Machines_, vol 3 of _Knight's A the saddler's stitch appears as a neat line of touching stitches on both sides Even when made by hand, it is sometimes misidentified by the casual observer as the lockstitch because of the uniformity of both sides If the saddler's stitch was formed of threads of two different colors, the even stitches on one side of the seam and the odd stitches on the reverse side would be of one color, and vice versa

[29] _The Life and Works of George H Corliss_, privately printed for Mary Corliss by the American Historical Society, 1930 The Corliss family records were turned over to the Baker Library, Harvard University In a letter addressed to this author by Robert W Lovett of the Manuscripts Division on August 2, 1954, it was reported that there was a record on their Corliss card to the effect that amachine, received with the collection, was turned over to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; however, Mr Lovett also stated that from a manuscript memoir of Mr Corliss that it would seem that he developed only the one machine--the patent model In a letter dated November 15, 1954, Stanley Backer, assistant professor of , stated that after extensive inquiries they were unable to locate the model at MIT In 1964, Dr Robert Woodbury, of MIT, turned over to the Smithsonian Institution the official copies of the Corliss drawings and the specifications which had been awarded to the inventor by the Patent Office It is possible that this may have been thebeen transferred to MIT

[30] _Sewing Machine Times_ (July 10, 1907), vol 26, no 858, p 1

[31] This is the earliest known patent using the combination of an eye-pointed needle and a shuttle to for is the technique of laying a decorative thread on the surface of the fabric and stitching it into place with a second less-conspicuous thread

_Chapter Two_

[Illustration: Figure 14--HOWE'S PREPATENT MODEL of 1845, and the box used by the inventor to carry the land in 1847

(Smithsonian photo 45506-B)]

Elements of a Successful Machine

The require machine were a support for the cloth, a needle to carry the thread through the fabric and a co mechanism to permit one stitch to follow another, tension controls to provide an even delivery of thread, and the related mechanism to insure the precise performance of each operation in its proper sequence Weisenthal had added a point to the eye-end of the needle, Saint supported the fabric by placing it in a horizontal position with a needle entering vertically, Duncan successfully completed a chainstitch for embroidery purposes, Chapman used a needle with an eye at its point and did not pass it coh the fabric, Krems stitched circular caps with an eye-pointed needle used with a hook to form a chainstitch, Thimonnier used the hooked needle to form a chainstitch on a fabric laid horizontally, and Hunt created a new stitch that wasby h each erm of an idea, a successful machine had not evolved There were to be hundreds of patents issued in an attempt to solve these and the numerous minor problems that would ensue But the problems were solved And, in spite of its Old World inception, the successful sewing machine can be credited as an Ah the invention of the practical sewing machine, like most ienerally give full credit to Elias Howe, Jr Though such credit enerous, Howe's important role in this history cannot be denied

Elias Howe, Jr, was born on a farm near Spencer, Massachusetts, but he left hoe to learn thean apprenticeshi+p in Lowell, he moved to Boston In the late 1830s, while employed in the instrument shop of Ari Davis, Howe is reported to have overheard a discussion concerning the need for a machine that would sew In 1843, when illness kept him from his job for days at a time, he remembered the conversation and the promises of the rich reward that reputedly awaited the successful inventor Detered to produce sufficient results to interest George Fisher in buying a one-half interest in his proposed invention By April 1845, Howe's14) was used to sew all the sea He continued to demonstrate his machine but found that interest was, at best, indifferent

Nevertheless, Howe co 15), which he submitted with his application for a patent The fifth United States patent (No 4,750) for a sewing machine was issued to hirooved and curved eye-pointed needle carried by a vibrating arm, with the needle supplied with thread from a spool Loops of thread from the needle were locked by a thread carried by a shuttle, which wasdrivers The cloth was suspended in a vertical position, i from a baster plate, which moved intermittently under the needle byoperation depended upon the length of the baster plate, and the seaht When the end of the baster plate reached the position of the needle, the machine was stopped The cloth was reinal position The cloth was moved forward on the pins, and the seam continued

In his patent specifications, Howe clai of the seah the cloth byar of a shuttle furnished with its bobbin, in the manner set forth, between the needle and the thread which it carried, under coement of parts substantially the sa of the thread that passes through the needle-eye bya 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 ed and operating substantially as described

3 The holding of the thread that is given out by the shuttle, so as to prevent its unwinding froh the loop, said thread being held by -piece, as herein made known, or in any other manner that is substantially the saing and co box, in co the stitch as the needle is retracted

5 The holding of the cloth to be sewed by the use of a baster-plate furnished with points for that purpose, and with holes enabling it to operate as a rack in thethe cloth forward and dispensing altogether with the necessity of basting the parts together