Part 15 (1/2)
No figures are available for 1860-1870, but 20,051 machines were manufactured in 1871
The machines of the [Elias] Howe Machine Co are not believed to have begun with serial nuures are available for 1865-1867
After that, the machines may be dated by serial number approximately as follows:
_Serial Number_ _Year_
11,000-46,000 1868 46,001-91,843 1869 91,844-167,000 1870 167,001-301,010 1871 301,011-446,010 1872 446,011-536,010 1873 536,011-571,010 1874 571,011-596,010 1875 596,011-705,304 1876
No figures are available for 1877-1886
[Illustration: Figure 97--ADVERTISING BROCHURE distributed by E Howe during the brothers' brief partnershi+p; the machines are basically A B
Howe machines, 1863 (Sure 98--HOWE (STOCKWELL BROTHERS) MACHINE, 1870
(Sure 99--PATENT MODEL OF CHRISTOPHER HODGKINS, Novened to Neheures 99, 100, and 101--THE N HUNT (later, in 1856, Hunt & Webster and finally in 1858 Ladd and Webster) sewing kins, Novened to Nehemiah Hunt First manufactured in 1853, the kins' patent, won a silver medal at the exhibition of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics association that same year
In 1856 Hunt took a partner, and the co account of this company appeared as a feature article in _Ballou's Pictorial_, July 5, 1856, where it was reported that ”the North American Shoe Company have over fifty of the latest i 31], now running” The article also esti in Massachusetts in 1855 was due to the sewing ain won a silver medal at the exhibition Very late in 1858 the company became Ladd, Webster, & Co
and continued tomachines until the mid-1860s
The approximate date of manufacture can be determined by serial number:
_Serial Number_ _Year_
1-100 1853 101-368 1854 369-442 1855 443-622 1856 623-1075 1857 1076-1565 1858 1566-3353 1859
No figures are available for the 1860s
[Illustration: Figure 100--RIGHT: HUNT & WEBSTER sewing machine of about 1855, serial number 414 (Sure 101--LADD, WEBSTER & CO sewing machine of about 1858, Boston, serial number 1497 (Sure 102--IMPROVED COMMON SENSE sewing machine of about 1870 This landn, that it is sos 112 and 113)
Dating from the early 1870s, the Improved Comer than the New England machine The spool holder is sie fro brochure of the period verifies the name of the machine, but does not identify thenah the Empire Co also produced a machine of this style, their models are marked with their name and with Ketchum's patent date, April 23, 1863 Of the several styles ofthe Rayest voluher number of examples still extant (Sure 103--JOHNSON SEWING MACHINE, 1857 Another of the all-but-forgotten hton & Co, who constructed the AF Johnsonmachines indicates that they were er This one from 1857 bears the serial number 624, so we know that several hundred were htly reminiscent of Wheeler & Wilson models, and of standard size (Sure 104--”LADY” SEWING MACHINE of about 1859 The conten of the head, or n patent, number 216, of Isaac F Baker, issued April 10, 1849, for a ”new and useful design[,] for orna furniture[,] called Cora Munro” as a character in Jan shows a fe dress and hat that is orna stick and the left, her skirt Trunks of trees and foliage con, which is known to have been used for girandoles of the period A con was also patented by Baker, number 215, which is in the form of a man in military costume and is named ”Major Heyward,” for another character in _Last of the Mohicans_
The sewing n also use branch designs as the overhanging arms A mother bird sits in the upper branch and descends to feed a young bird as the machine is in operation The one illustrated was used as the e Hensel of New York City for which patent 24,737 was issued on July 12, 1859 Since Hensel's patent application was for an ihly decorative head unless such a machine was commercially available The patent specificationsmachine of this type was used as the patent , New York, number 24,780, issued on the same date as the Hensel patent Parker's patent also covered an i mechanism In the patent description, however, the inventor states that ”the general form of the ht have n, or possibly in the basic structural form Other than the two machines described, no other examples are known to have survived, but ”Lady” or ”Cora Munro” sewing machines were manufactured (Sure 105--LANDFEAR'S PATENT SEWING MACHINE of about 1857 Another of the many machines that, except for isolated examples, have almost completely disappeared from the records is Landfear's machine Fortunately, thisit: ”Landfear's patent-Decr 1856, No 262, W H
Johnson's Patent Feb 26th 1856, Manfrd by Parkers, Snow, Brooks & Co, West Meriden, Conn” (There was a Parker sewing machine manufactured by the Charles Parker Co of Meriden, but his machine was a double-thread chainstitch machine and was licensed by the ”Combination” The Landfear machine may have been an earlier attempt by a predecessor or closely related company)
The Landfear patent was for a shuttlestitch length The nale-thread chainstitch mechanism is primarily that of W H Johnson, but since the Johnson patent also was used on other ned The machine was probably another attempt to evade royalty payment to the ”Combination”
The serial number 262 indicates that at least that h this model is the only one known to be in existence The support arm of the machine head is iron, cast as a vase of flowers and painted in natural colors The paint on the head is original, but the table has been refinished, and the iron legs, which had rusted, have been repainted (Sure 106--LATHROP SEWING MACHINE of about 1873 TheseMachine Co
under the patents of Lebbeus W Lathrop of 1869, 1870, and 1873 The machine used two threads, both taken from spools; moreover, it produced not only the double chainstitch, but it was constructed to produce also a lockstitch and a combined ”lock and chain stitch” The machine illustrated bears the serial number 31 and the patent dates of Grover & Baker, and Bachelder a others, in addition to the first two Lathrop patent dates The company lasted only a few years as it is included in the 1881 list of manufacturers that had ceased to exist (Sure 107--ILlustRATION FROM A BROCHURE, er Archives (Sures 107 and 108--THE NICHOLS AND LEAVITT sewing machines One of Elias Howe's earliest licensees was J B Nichols His e Bliss and later alone as J B Nichols & Co, was called Howe's I Machine It was, however, no more a Howe machine than any of the others produced under the Howe patent
In July 1855 Nichols went into partnershi+p with Rufus Leavitt, and the coed to Nichols, Leavitt & Co In 1857 it was changed again to Leavitt & Co, and finally in theMachine Co By the 1870s, it was defunct