Part 4 (2/2)

It was then that the lawyer of the Grover and Baker co-machine manufacturer of the early 1850s, supplied the solution

Grover and Baker were ood, for this early period William O Grover was another Boston tailor, who, unliketo revolutionize his chosen trade Although the sewing an in 1849 to experin was for a machine that would take both its threads from spools and eliminate the need to wind one thread upon a bobbin After , he proved that it was possible totwo threads in a succession of slipknots, but he found that building a machine to do this was athat while he orking on this idea, he did not stule-thread (as opposed to Grover and Baker's two-thread) chainstitch, later worked out by another Grover orking so intently on the use of two threads that apparently no thought of for a stitch with one thread had a chance to develop

At this time Grover became a partner with another Boston tailor, William E Baker, and on February 11, 1851, they were issued US patent No 7,931 for a machine that did exactly what Grover had set out to do; it made a double chainstitch with two threads both carried on ordinary thread spools The s 34 and 35) used a vertical eye-pointed needle for the top thread and a horizontal needle for the underthread

The cloth was placed on the horizontal platform or table, which had a hole for the entry of the vertical needle When this needle passed through the cloth, it formed a loop on the underside The horizontal needle passed through this loop for another loop beyond, which was retained until the redescending vertical needle enchained it, and the process repeated The slack in the needle thread was controlled byrolls and a band

[Illustration: Figure 36--GROVER'S PATENT MODEL FOR THE FIRST PORTABLE CASE, 1856 Thethe serial number 3012 and the patent dates ”Feby 11, 1851, June 22, 1852, Feby 22, 1853” Powered by a single, foot-shaped treadle that was connected by a removable wooden pitman, it also could be turned by hand (Sanized under the na Machine Company, and soon the partners took Jacob Weatherill, mechanic, and Orlando B Potter, lawyer (who became the president), into the firm

Potter contributed his ability as a lawyer in lieu of a financial invest patents of Grover and Baker These patents were primarily for mechanical improvements such as US patent No 9,053 issued to Grover and Baker on June 22, 1852, for devising a curved upper needle and an under looper[62] to form the double-looped stitch which became known as the Grover and Baker stitch

One of theof the patents, however, was for the box or sewing case for which Grover was issued US patent No 14,956 on May 27, 1856 The inventor stated ”that when open the box shall constitute the bed for thethe , and repairs without re h the Grover and Baker co the more common lockstitch, both under royalty in their own name and also for other smaller companies, Potter was convinced that the Grover and Baker stitch was the one that eventually would be used in both family and commercial machines He, as president, directed the efforts of the co-Machine Coan to run out in theprice of sewing an a syste of branch offices All the patents held by the company and the business itself were sold to another company[63] But the members of the Grover and Baker coic move

The Grover and Baker reat influence on the overall develop

The merits of a double-looped stitch--its elasticity and the taking of both threads frohed by the bulkiness of the seam and its consumption of three times asa similar type of stitch have continued in lioods and other products requiring an elastic seam But, more importantly, Grover and Baker's astute Orlando B Potter placed their na- the ”Combination,”

believed to be the first ”trust” of any proraphical sketch, pp 138-141

[34] _In the Matter of the Application of Elias Howe, Jr for an Extension of His Sewing Machine Patent Dated September 10, 1846_, New York, 1860, with attachments A and B, US Patent Office [LC call no

TJ 1512H6265]

[35] It is interesting to note that when William Thomas applied for the British patent of the Howe machine (issued Dec 1, 1846), the courts would not allow the claim for the combination of the eye-pointed needle and shuttle to form a stitch, due to the Fisher and Gibbons patent of 1844 For raphical sketch, pp 138-141

[36] TheMachine is the British patent of the Thinin and was published by _Newton's London Journal_, vol 39, p

317, as Magnin's invention

[37] The exact date is not known; however, it was prior to 1856 as the patent was included in the sewing-machine patent pool for Machine_, p 12, (originally published in the _Atlantic Monthly_, May 1867), later reprinted by the Howe Machine Co Machine Times_ (Feb 25, 1907), vol 17, no 382, p 1, ”His [Bonata's] shop was on Gold Street, New York, near the Bartholf shop, where Hoas building so Machine News_, vol 3, no 5, p 5, Sept 1881-Jan 1882

”History of the Sewing Machine”

[41] Op cit (footnote 34)

[42] _New York Daily Tribune_, Jan 15, 1852, p 2