Elias Howe

Elias Howe
Born	July 9, 1819(1819-07-09) Spencer, Massachusetts
Died	October 3, 1867(1867-10-03) (aged 48) Brooklyn, New York
Nationality	American
Education	apprenticed as mechanic and machinist
Spouse	Elizabeth Jennings Ames (m. 1841; d. 1850) Rose Halladay (d. 1890)
Children	Jane Robinson Howe, Simon Ames Howe, Julia Maria Howe
Parents	Elias Howe and Polly (Bemis) Howe
Work
Engineering discipline	Mechanical Engineering
Significant projects	sewing machine
Significant advance	lockstitch loop method
Significant awards	Gold Medal, Paris Exposition of 1867, Légion d'honneur (France)

Elias Howe, Jr. (July 9, 1819 – October 3, 1867) was an American inventor and sewing machine pioneer.

Early life & family

Howe was born on July 9, 1819 to Dr. Elias Howe, Sr. and Polly (Bemis) Howe in Spencer, Massachusetts. Howe spent his childhood and early adult years in Massachusetts where he apprenticed in a textile factory in Lowell beginning in 1835. After mill closings due to the Panic of 1837, he moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts to work as a mechanic with carding machinery, apprenticing along with his cousin Nathaniel P. Banks. Beginning in 1838, he apprenticed in the shop of Ari Davis, a master mechanic in Cambridge who specialized in the manufacture and repair of chronometers and other precision instruments.^[1] It was in the employ of Davis that Howe seized upon the idea of the sewing machine.

He married Elizabeth Jennings Ames, daughter of Simon Ames and Jane B. Ames on 3 Mar 1841 in Cambridge.^[2] They had three children: Jane Robinson Howe, Simon Ames Howe, and Julia Maria Howe.

Invention of sewing machine and career

Elias Howe's Sewing Machine U.S. Patent #4,750 issued 10 Sep 1846

Elias Howe Sewing Machine September 10, 1846

Contrary to popular belief, Howe was not the first to conceive of the idea of a sewing machine. Many other people had formulated the idea of such a machine before him, one as early as 1790, and some had even patented their designs and produced working machines, in one case at least 80 of them.^[3] However, Howe originated significant refinements to the design concepts of his predecessors, and on September 10, 1846, he was awarded the first United States patent (U.S. Patent 4,750) for a sewing machine using a lockstitch design. His machine contained the three essential features common to most modern machines:

• a needle with the eye at the point,
• a shuttle operating beneath the cloth to form the lock stitch, and
• an automatic feed.

Despite securing his patent, Howe had considerable difficulty finding investors in the United States to finance production of his invention, so his elder brother Amasa Bemis Howe traveled to England in October 1846 to seek financing. Amasa was able to sell his first machine for £250 to William Thomas of Cheapside, London, who owned a factory for the manufacture of corsets, umbrellas and valises. Elias and his family joined Amasa in London in 1848, but after business disputes with Thomas and failing health of his wife, Howe returned nearly penniless to the United States. His wife Elizabeth, who preceded Elias back to the United States, died in Cambridge, Massachusetts shortly after his return in 1849.^[4]

Despite his efforts to sell his machine, other entrepreneurs began manufacturing sewing machines. Howe was forced to defend his patent in a court case that lasted from 1849 to 1854 because he found that Isaac Singer with cooperation from Walter Hunt had perfected a facsimile of his machine and was selling it with the same lockstitch that Howe had invented and patented. He won the dispute and earned considerable royalties from Singer and others for sales of his invention. Howe contributed much of the money he earned to the equip the 17th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry Regiment of the Union Army during the Civil War, in which Howe served during the Civil War as a private in Company D and regimental postmaster from August 14, 1862, to July 19, 1865.^[5][6]

Later life and legacy

In 1865, Elias established the Howe Machine Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut that was operated by the Stockwell brothers, his brothers-in-law, from 1867 until about 1885. Between 1867 and 1870, Elias's brother Amasa operated a factory in New York City manufacturing sewing machines under the brand name of A.B. Howe. Elias's sewing machine won the gold medal at the Paris Exhibition of 1867,^[1] and that same year he was awarded the Légion d'honneur by Napoleon III for his invention.^[7]

Howe died at age 48, on 3 October 1867. He was buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn New York with his second wife Rose Halladay who died on 10 Oct 1890. Both Singer and Howe ended their days as multi-millionaires.^[8] The Beatles' 1965 movie Help! is dedicated to Howe as part of its closing credits, and in 2004 he was inducted into the United States National Inventors Hall of Fame.^[1]

Genealogy

Elias Howe in 1867 engraving for Harpers Weekly.

Howe was a direct descendant of John Howe (1602-1680) who arrived in Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630 from Brinklow, Warwickshire, England and settled in Sudbury, Massachusetts. Howe was also a descendant of Edmund Rice another early immigrant to Massachusetts Bay Colony as follows:^[2][9]

• Elias Howe, Jr, son of

• Elias Howe (1792 – ?), son of
• Elijah Howe, Jr. (1768 – 1816), son of
• Elijah Howe (1731 – 1808),^[10] son of
• Jaazaniah Howe (1704 – 1762), son of

• Deliverance Rice (1681 – 1723), daughter of
• John Rice (1659 – 1719), son of
• Deacon Edward Rice (1622 – 1712), son of

• Deacon Edmund Rice (1594 – 1663)

References

External links

Biography portal

• Elias Howe at Find a Grave
• Iles, George (1912), Leading American Inventors, New York: Henry Holt and Company, pp. 338–369, http://www.archive.org/details/leadingamericani00ilesrich 
• Elias Howe Biography by Alex I. Askaroff
•  "Howe, Elias". Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. 1892. 
•  Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). "Howe, Elias". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

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