Part 19 (2/2)

[Illustration: Figure 135--ELIAS HOWE, JR, 1819-1867 Fro in the Srandson, Elias Howe Stockwell (S last Hoas able to spend his full ti hisfed and had a roof over its head Within a few months Howe had completed a14) In July of that year he sewed all the principal seae Fisher and one for himself

Several efforts were made to solicit public interest in the new machine

One was installed in a public hall in Boston, and a tailor was ee The reception was similar to that of Thimonnier's: crowds came to see the ”contraption,” but, when Howe tried to interest large clothing establish the machine, the protests of the tailors effectively blocked hi Manufactory and offered to sew up any seaht to hi his ed five of the swiftest seath were prepared for stitching One was given to each of the girls while the reiven to Howe Howe finished his five a little sooner than the girls each finished one, and his seaest and neatest (Had any curved or angular work been brought, he could not have stitched it) Still Howe did not receive a single order

The fear of throwing hand sewers out of as again expressed, and, in addition, the cost of the h When it was estie shi+rtmaker would have to buy thirty or forty such e investment was dised In the meantime, he had finished a second machine for deposit with the patent specifications, as the patent laws then required The second was a better es As soon as the patent was issued on Septee

Without the inventor's enthusiashly discouraged He had boarded Howe and his family for nearly two years, had furnished thethe tingthe patent and the trip of Howe and hi in all an outlay of practically 2000 Since no orders for arhtest probability of the arded his advances of cash as a dead loss

Howe moved back to his father's house with a plan to look elsewhere for a chance to introduce thea loan froland by his brother A attempts to interest the British, Amasa met Williaoods Thomas employed many workmen, all of whom stitched by hand, and he i machine He proposed that Howe sell the(about 1250) Thoe the inventor to adapt thisof corsets, at a salary of 3 a week

When Ae with the news, Elias was reluctant to accept Thoht So the brothers sailed for London in February 1847, taking with them Howe's first machine and his patent papers Thoe money for Hoife and three children so that they could join Howe in England

At this point, historians disagree on how long Hoas in Tho theenough, however, to find hie country, his funds nearly exhausted, and his wife ill He hoped to profit by the notice that his work had received and began to build another machine He sent his family home to reduce expenses while he stayed on to finish theon it for three or four months, he was forced to sell it for five pounds and to take a note for that To collect enough for his passage home, he sold the note for four pounds cash and pawned his precious first machine and his patent papers He landed in New York in April 1849 with but half a crown in his pocket to show for his labors A short time after he arrived, he learned that his as desperately ill Only with a loan from his father was he able to reach her side before she died Friends were found to look after the children, and Elias returned to work as a journeyman machinist

Howe discovered, land the sewing nized in the United States

Several machines made in Boston had been sold tothem, he felt that they utilized all or part of the invention that he had patented in 1846, and he prepared to secure just coain his first machine and patent papers from the London pawnshop It was no easy ed It was sent to London with Anson Burlingame, who redeemed the loans, and by autumn of the same year the precious possessions were back in Howe's hands Though Howe gained nothing by his English experience, Williahts to the machine for Great Britain This later proved to be a valuable property

Howe then began writing letters to those who the machines which incorporated his patented inventions So to pay the fee, but they were persuaded by the others to stand with them and resist Howe This action forced Howe to the courts With his father's aid he began a suit, but soon found that considerably more money than either possessed was necessary for such actions Howe turned oncemoney in Howe's machine without any monetary return had cooled hireed to sell his half interest, and in February 1851 George S Jackson, Daniel C Johnson, and Willia became joint owners with Howe These men helped Howe to procure witnesses in the furtherance of numerous suits, butyear a Massachusetts e W Bliss was persuaded to advance the al expenses needed to protect the patent Bliss did this as a speculation and de-suffering parent caet the necessary collateral

Only one of these suits was prosecuted to a hearing, but this one, relatively unimportant in itself, set the precedent In it the defense relied on the earlier invention of Walter Hunt to oppose Howe's clai that Hunt invented, perfected, and sold two machines in 1834 and 1835 which contained all the essential devices in Howe's machine of 1846 But Howe showed that the defendant's ett and Lerow) contained some features of Howe's machine which were not in Hunt's The jury decided the case in favor of Howe Howe later fought a vigorous battle with Isaac Singer, but after al controversy the ultimate decision in that case also was in Howe's favor The suits and payht to use his idea were choking the sewing-machine industry Even Howe could not ereement was reached and a ”Combination” was formed by the major patent holders (see pp 41-42)

In the ht years of the first ter much revenue This pere Bliss, to buy Bliss' half interest for a small sum He beca him a fortune He obtained a seven-year extension for his patent in 1860 without any difficulty, and in 1867, when he applied for another extension, he stated that he had received 1,185,000 froh he endeavored to show that because of the reat value to the public he was entitled to receive at least 150,000,000, the second application was denied

During the Civil War, Howe enlisted as a private soldier in the 17th Regiment Connecticut Volunteers He went into the field and served as an enlisted man On occasion when the Government was pressed for funds to pay its soldiers, he advanced the i-machine factory until just before his death in 1867 One of his early licensees had been his elder brother, A Machine Co machines on his own, he sunk into the bedplate of each ave his company the same name that his elder brother had used As this had been Amasa's exclusive property for many years, he took the ainst Elias He then organized the Howe Machine Co machines On October 3, 1867, Elias died in Brooklyn, New York, at the home of one of his sons-in-law The company was then carried on by his two sons-in-laere Stockwell brothers In 1872 the Hoing Machine Company was sold by Amasa's son to the Stockwells' Howe Machine Company, which in turn went out of business in the mid-1880s

ALLEN BENJAMIN WILSON

Allen B Wilson was born in the small town of Willett, Cortlandt County, New York, in 1824 At sixteen he was apprenticed to a distant relative, a cabinetmaker Unfortunate circumstances caused him to leave this e as a journeyman cabinetmaker The place and year are important, for it was at this ti machine Because of the distant location, it is believed that he was not aware of siland Wilson becaust 1848 he was able to work again and found e to develop his idea of a sewing ently and by Nove to his previous conceptions

In comparison to the er, Wilson hireat a -machine inventions Because of his health Wilson retired in 1853, when the stock coular salary and additional money from the patent renewals Wilson petitioned for a second extension of his patents on April 7, 1874, stating that, due to his early poverty, he had been compelled to sell a half interest in a patent (his first one) for the sum of 200 Also he stated that he had not received inal fourteen-year term Wilson also stated that he had received only 137,000 during the first seven-year extension period These figures were verified by his partner The petition was read before both Houses of Congress and referred to the Coainst the extension of the Wilson patents The New York _Daily Graphic_, December 30, 1874, reported: