The Invention of the Sewing Machine Part 3

a patent pool, which is discussed in more detail on pages 41 and 42.

While new ideas and inventors continued to provide the answers to some of the sewing-machine problems, Elias Howe began a series of patent suits to sustain the rights that he felt were his. Since his interest had never been in constructing machines for sale, it was absolutely essential for Howe to protect his royalty rights in order to realize any return from his patent. He was reported[38] to have supervised the construction of 14 sewing machines at a shop[39] on Gold Street in New York toward the close of 1850. Sworn contemporary testimony indicates that the machines were of no practical use.[40] Elias stated, in his application for his patent extension,[41] that he made only one machine in 1850-51. In 1852 he advertised[42] territorial rights and machines, but apparently did not realize any financial success until he sold a half interest in his patent to George Bliss in November 1852.[43] Bliss later began manufacturing machines that he initially sold as "Howe's Patent"; however, these machines were substantially different from the basic Howe machine.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 20.--BLODGETT & LEROW SEWING MACHINE, 1850, as manufactured by A. Bartholf, New York; the serial number of the machine is 19. At right, an original bra.s.s plate from the same type of machine with needle arm and presser foot and arm, serial number 119; the plate, however, does not fit the machine correctly. (Smithsonian photo 48440-D; bra.s.s plate: 48440-K.)]

On May 18, 1853, Elias Howe granted his first royalty license to Wheeler, Wilson & Company. Within a few months licenses were also granted to Grover & Baker; A. Bartholf; Nichols & Bliss; J. A. Lerow; Woolridge, Keene, and Moore; and A. B. Howe, the brother of Elias. These licenses granted the manufacturer the right to use any part of the Howe patent,[44] but it did not mean that the machines were Elias Howe machines. When a royalty license was paid, the patent date and sometimes the name was stamped onto the machine. For this reason, these machines are sometimes mistakenly thought to be Elias Howe machines. They are not.

Howe was also prevented from manufacturing a practical machine unless he paid a royalty to other inventors. Three of the major manufacturers and Howe resolved their differences by forming the "Sewing Machine Combination." Although Howe did not enter the manufacturing compet.i.tion for many years, he profited substantially from the royalty terms of the combination. In 1860, he applied for and received a seven-year extension on his patent.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 21.--BLODGETT & LEROW SEWING MACHINE, 1850, stamped with the legend "G.o.ddard, Rice & Co., Makers, Worcester, Ma.s.s."

and the serial number 37. Below: An original bra.s.s plate marked "No.

38"; this plate fits the machine perfectly. (Smithsonian photo 48440-E; bra.s.s plate: 48440-J.)]

There were Howe family machines for sale during this period, but these were the ones that Amasa Howe had been manufacturing since 1853. The machine was an excellent one and received the highest medal for sewing machines, together with many flattering testimonials, at the London International Exhibition in 1862. After the publication of this award the demand for (Amasa) Howe sewing machines was greatly increased at home and abroad. Elias took this opportunity to gain entry into the manufacturing business by persuading Amasa to let him build a factory at Bridgeport, Connecticut, and manufacture the (Amasa) Howe machines. Two years pa.s.sed before the factory was completed, and Amasa's agents were discouraged. The loss could have been regained, but the machines produced at Bridgeport were not of the quality of the earlier machines.

Amasa attempted to rebuild the Bridgeport machines, but finally abandoned them and resumed manufacturing machines in New York under his own immediate supervision.[45] Elias formed his own company and continued to manufacture sewing machines. In 1867 he requested a second extension of his patent, but the request was refused. Elias Howe died in October of the same year.

Meanwhile, another important sewing machine of a different principle had also been patented in 1849. This was the machine of Sherburne C.

Blodgett, a tailor by trade, who was supported financially by John A.

Lerow. United States patent 6,766 was issued to both men on October 2, 1849. In the patent, the machine was termed as "our new 'Rotary Sewing Machine'." The shuttle movement was continuous, revolving in a circle, rather than reciprocating as in the earlier machines. Automatic tension was initiated, restraining the slack thread from interference with the point of the needle.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 22.--WILSON'S PREPATENT MODEL for his reciprocating-shuttle machine, 1850. (Smithsonian photo 45525-A.)]

The Blodgett and Lerow machine was built by several shops. One of the earliest was the shop of Orson C. Phelps on Harvard Place in Boston.

Phelps took the Blodgett and Lerow machine to the sixth exhibition of the Ma.s.sachusetts Charitable Mechanics a.s.sociation in September 1850 and won a silver medal and this praise, "This machine performed admirably; it is an exceedingly ingenious and compact machine, able to perform tailor's sewing beautifully and thoroughly."[46] Although Phelps had won the earliest known premium for a sewing machine, and although the machine was produced commercially to a considerable extent (figs. 20 and 21), one outstanding flaw in its operation could not be overlooked. As the shuttle pa.s.sed around the six-inch circular shuttle race, it put a twist in the thread (or took one out if the direction was reversed) at each revolution. This caused a constant breaking of the thread, a condition that could not be rectified without changing the principle of operation. Such required changes were later to lead I. M. Singer, another well-known name, into the work of improving this machine.

Also exhibited at the same 1850 mechanics fair was the machine of Allen B. Wilson. Wilson's machine received only a bronze medal, but his inventive genius was to have a far greater effect on the development of the practical sewing machine than the work of Blodgett and Lerow. A. B.

Wilson[47] was one of the ablest of the early inventors in the field of mechanical st.i.tching, and probably the most original.

Wilson, a native of Willett, New York, was a young cabinetmaker at Adrian, Michigan, in 1847 when he first conceived of a machine that would sew. He was apparently unaware of parallel efforts by inventors in distant New England. After an illness, he moved to Pittsfield, Ma.s.sachusetts, and pursued his idea in earnest. By November 1848 he had produced the basic drawings for a machine that would make a lockst.i.tch.

The needle, piercing the cloth, left a loop of thread below the seam. A shuttle carrying a second thread pa.s.sed through the loop, and as the tension was adjusted a completed lockst.i.tch was formed (fig. 22).

Wilson's shuttle was pointed on both ends to form a st.i.tch on both its forward and backward motion, a decided improvement over the shuttles of Hunt and Howe, which formed st.i.tches in only one direction. After each st.i.tch the cloth was advanced for the next st.i.tch by a sliding bar against which the cloth was held by a stationary presser. While the needle was still in the cloth and holding it, the sliding bar returned for a fresh grip on the cloth.

Wilson made a second machine, on the same principle, and applied for a patent. He was approached by the owners of the Bradshaw 1848 patent, who claimed control of the double-pointed shuttle. Although this claim was without justification, as can be seen by examining the Bradshaw patent specifications, Wilson did not have sufficient funds to fight the claim. In order to avoid a suit, he relinquished to A. P. Kline and Edward Lee, a one-half interest in his U.S. patent 7,776 which was issued on November 12, 1850 (fig. 23).

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 23.--WILSON'S PATENT MODEL, 1850. (Smithsonian photo 45504-H.)]

Inventor Wilson had been a.s.sociated with Kline and Lee (E. Lee & Co.) for only a few months, when, on November 25, 1850, he agreed to sell his remaining interest to his partners for $2,000. He retained only limited rights for New Jersey and for Ma.s.sachusetts. The sale was fruitless for the inventor, as no payment was ever made. How much money E. E. Lee & Co. realized from the Wilson machine is difficult to determine, but they ran numerous ads in the 1851 and 1852 issues of _Scientific American_. A typical one reads:

A. B. Wilson's Sewing Machine, justly allowed to be the cheapest and best now in use, patented November 12, 1850; can be seen on exhibition at 195 and 197 Broadway (formerly the Franklin House, Room 23, third floor) or to E. E. Lee & Co., Earle's Hotel. Rights for territory or machines can be had by applying to George R.

Chittenden, Agent.[48]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 24.--WILSON'S PREPATENT MODEL for his rotary hook, 1851. (Smithsonian photo 45506-E.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 25.--WILSON'S ROTARY-HOOK PATENT MODEL, 1851.

(Smithsonian photo 45505-B.)]

Another reads:

A. B. Wilson's Sewing Machine ... the best and only practical sewing machine--not larger than a lady's work box--for the trifling sum of $35.[49]

Wilson severed relations with Lee and Kline in early 1851 shortly after meeting Nathaniel Wheeler, who was to become his partner in a happier, more profitable enterprise involving the sewing machine.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 26.--WILSON'S stationary-bobbin patent model, 1852; a commercial machine was used since Wheeler, Wilson, Co. had begun manufacturing machines the previous year. (Smithsonian photo 45504-B.)]

Wilson, with his two partners, was occupying a room in the old Sun Building at 128 Fulton Street, when Wheeler, on a business trip to New York City, learned of the Wilson sewing machine. Wheeler examined the machine, saw its possibilities, and at once contracted with E. Lee & Co.

to make 500 of them. At the same time he engaged Wilson to go with him to Watertown, Connecticut, to perfect the machine and supervise its manufacture. Meanwhile, Wilson had been working on a subst.i.tute for the shuttle. He showed his model of the device, which became known as the rotary hook, to Wheeler who was so convinced of its superiority that he decided to develop this new machine and leave Wilson's first machine to the others, who, by degrees, had become its owners.

Wilson now applied all his effort to improving the rotary hook, for which he received his second patent on August 12, 1851 (figs. 24 and 25). Wheeler, his two partners Warren and Woodruff, and Wilson now formed a new copartnership--Wheeler, Wilson, and Company. They began the manufacture of the machines under the patent, which combined the rotary hook and a reciprocating bobbin. The rotary hook extended or opened more widely the loop of the needle thread, while a reciprocating bobbin carried its thread through the extended loop. To avoid litigation which the reciprocating bobbin might have caused, Wilson contrived his third outstanding invention--the stationary bobbin. This was a feature of the first machine produced by the new company in 1851, though the patent for the stationary bobbin was not issued until June 15, 1852 (fig. 26).

In all reciprocating-shuttle machines a certain loss of power is incurred in driving forward, stopping, and bringing back the shuttle at each st.i.tch; also, the machines are rather noisy, owing to the striking of the driver against the shuttle at each stroke. These objections were removed by Wilson's rotary hook and stationary bobbin. The locking of the needle thread with the bobbin thread was accomplished, not by driving a shuttle through the loop of the needle thread, but by pa.s.sing that loop under the bobbin. The driving shaft carried the circular rotary hook, one of the sewing machine's most beautiful contrivances.

The success of the machine is indicated in an article that appeared in the June 1853 issue of _Scientific American_:

There are 300 of these machines now in operation in various parts of the country, and the work which they can perform cannot be surpa.s.sed.... The time must soon come when every private family that has much sewing to do, will have one of these neat and perfect machines; indeed many private families have them now.... The price of one all complete is $125; every machine is made under the eye of the inventor at the company's machine shop, Watertown, Connecticut, so that every one is warranted ... agreement between Mr. Howe and Messrs. Wheeler, Wilson & Co., so every customer will be perfectly protected....[50]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 27.--WILSON'S four-motion-feed patent model, 1854, is not known to be in existence; this is a commercial machine of the period. The plate is stamped "A. B. Wilson, Patented Aug. 12, 1851, Watertown, Conn., No. 1...." (Smithsonian photo 45504.)]

This agreement was important to sales, as Elias Howe was known to have sued purchasers of machines, as well as rival inventors and companies.

The business was on a substantial basis by October 1853, and a stock company was formed under the name of Wheeler & Wilson Manufacturing Company.[51] A little more than a year later, on December 19, 1854, Wilson's fourth important patent (U.S. patent 12,116)--for the four-motion cloth feed--was issued to him (fig. 27). In this development, the flat-toothed surface in contact with the cloth moved forward carrying the cloth with it; then it dropped a little, so as not to touch the cloth; next it moved backward; then in the fourth motion it pushed up against the cloth and was ready to repeat the forward movements. This simple and effective feed method is still used today, with only minor modifications, in almost every sewing machine. This feed with the rotary hook and the stationary circular-disk bobbin, completed the essential features of Wilson's machine. It was original and fundamentally different from all other machines of that time.

The resulting Wheeler and Wilson machine made a lockst.i.tch by means of a curved eye-pointed needle carried by a vibrating arm projecting from a rock shaft connected by link and eccentric strap with an eccentric on the rotating hook shaft. This shaft had at its outer end the rotary hook, provided with a point adapted to enter the loop of needle thread.

As the hook rotated, it pa.s.sed into and drew down the loop of needle-thread, which was held by means of a loop check, while the point of the hook entered a new loop. When the first loop was cast off--the face of the hook being beveled for that purpose--it was drawn upward by the action of the hook upon the loop through which it was then pa.s.sing.

During the rotation of the hook each loop was pa.s.sed around a disk bobbin provided with the second thread and serving the part of the shuttle in other machines. The four-motion feed was actuated in this machine by means of a spring bar and a cam in conjunction with the mandrel.

From the beginning, Wheeler and Wilson had looked beyond the use of the sewing machine solely by manufacturers and had seen the demand for a light-running, lightweight machine for sewing in the home. Wilson's inventions lent themselves to this design, and Wheeler and Wilson led the way to the introduction of the machine as a home appliance. Other manufacturers followed.

When the stock company was formed, Mr. Wilson retired from active partic.i.p.ation in the business at his own request. His health had not been good, and a nervous condition made it advisable for him to be freed from the responsibility of daily routine. During this period Wilson's inventive contributions to the sewing machine continued as noted, and in addition he worked on inventions concerning cotton picking and illuminating gases.

Wheeler and Wilson's foremost compet.i.tor in the early years of sewing-machine manufacture was the Singer Company, which overtook them by 1870 and finally absorbed the entire Wheeler and Wilson Manufacturing Company in 1905.

The founder of this most successful 19th-century company was Isaac Singer, a native of Pittstown, New York.[52] Successively a mechanic, an actor, and an inventor, Singer came to Boston in 1850 to promote his invention of a machine for carving printers' wooden type. He exhibited the carving machine in Orson Phelps' shop, where the Blodgett and Lerow machines were being manufactured.

Because the carving machine evoked but little interest, Singer turned his attention to the sewing machine as a device offering considerable opportunity for both improvement and financial reward. Phelps liked Singer's ideas and joined with George Zieber, the publisher who had been backing the carving-machine venture, to support Singer in the work of improving the sewing machine. His improvements in the Blodgett and Lerow machine included a table to hold the cloth horizontally rather than vertically (this had been used by Bachelder and Wilson also), a yielding vertical presser foot to hold the cloth down as the needle was drawn up, and a vertically reciprocating straight needle driven by a rotary, overhanging shaft.

The story of the invention and first trial of the machine was told by Singer in the course of a patent suit sometime later:

I explained to them how the work was to be fed over the table and under the presser-foot, by a wheel, having short pins on its periphery, projecting through a slot in the table, so that the work would be automatically caught, fed and freed from the pins, in place of attaching and detaching the work to and from the baster plate by hand, as was necessary in the Blodgett machine.

Phelps and Zieber were satisfied that it would work. I had no money. Zieber offered forty dollars to build a model machine.

Phelps offered his best endeavors to carry out my plan and make the model in his shop; if successful we were to share equally. I worked at it day and night, sleeping but three or four hours a day out of the twenty-four, and eating generally but once a day, as I knew I must make it for the forty dollars or not get it at all.

The machine was completed in eleven days. About nine o'clock in the evening we got the parts together and tried it; it did not sew; the workmen exhausted with almost unremitting work, p.r.o.nounced it a failure and left me one by one.

Zieber held the lamp, and I continued to try the machine, but anxiety and incessant work had made me nervous and I could not get tight st.i.tches. Sick at heart, about midnight, we started for our hotel. On the way we sat down on a pile of boards, and Zieber mentioned that the loose loops of thread were on the upper side of the cloth. It flashed upon me that we had forgot to adjust the tension on the needle thread. We went back, adjusted the tension, tried the machine, sewed five st.i.tches perfectly and the thread snapped, but that was enough. At three o'clock the next day the machine was finished. I took it to New York and employed Mr.

Charles M. Keller to patent it. It was used as a model in the application for the patent.[53]

The first machine was completed about the last of September 1850. The partners considered naming the machine the "Jenny Lind," after the Swedish soprano who was then the toast of America. It was reported[54]

to have been advertised under that name when the machine was first placed on the market, but the name was soon changed to "Singer's Perpendicular Action Sewing Machine" or simply the "Singer Sewing Machine"--a name correctly antic.i.p.ated to achieve a popularity of its own.