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Elias Howe

 

(born July 9, 1819, Spencer, Mass., U.S. — died Oct. 3, 1867, Brooklyn, N.Y.) U.S. inventor. A nephew of William Howe, he began work as a mechanic. In 1846 he was granted a patent for the first practical sewing machine. It attracted little attention, and he moved to England and worked to perfect his machine for use with leather and similar materials. When he returned the next year, he found that sewing machines were being widely made and sold; he finally established his patent rights in 1854. His invention soon revolutionized the garment industry. See also Isaac Merritt Singer.

For more information on Elias Howe, visit Britannica.com.

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Biography: Elias Howe
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Elias Howe (1819-1867), American inventor, is credited with designing the first workable sewing machine, an invention which revolutionized garment and shoe manufacture.

Elias Howe was born in Spencer, Mass., where his father operated a gristmill and sawmill. In 1835 Elias was apprenticed to a manufacturer of cotton machinery in Lowell, Mass. Two years later he worked briefly in a machine shop in Cambridge, then apprenticed himself in Boston to a maker of watches and scientific instruments.

While working in this shop, Howe is said to have overheard the owner discussing the need for, and problems involved in making, a sewing machine. By 1844 Howe himself began trying to build a workable model. Even though he had acquired a family, he quit his job and, with financial support from his father, worked full-time on the invention. Later he was able to take in a partner, who provided more capital.

Howe had a sewing machine working as early as April 1845, and in September 1846 he obtained a U.S. patent for his second machine. One key to his success was the placement of the eye of the needle near the point, rather than at the opposite end as in a regular needle. Howe sent his brother to England to seek a market and there sold his third machine to a manufacturer of corsets, umbrellas, and shoes. This manufacturer saw the possibilities the sewing machine would have if it could be redesigned to sew leather for shoes. He asked Howe to come to England to work on the problem. The two soon quarreled, however, and Howe was forced to pawn his model and the patent papers to raise enough money to return home.

Upon his return Howe discovered that several manufacturers were developing a market in America for sewing machines. This appeared to infringe his patent. In a lawsuit that lasted from 1849 to 1854, he finally vindicated his claims to originality and priority and was able to extract a license fee for each machine produced by his rivals. At the height of his prosperity Howe received as much as $4, 000 a week in royalties.

Howe's new wealth was but one measure of the success of the sewing machine. Within the decade of the 1850s it became a major trade item. In 1860 some 110, 000 sewing machines were manufactured. In turn, there was a rise in the number of ready-to-wear garments. The sewing machine was applied to shoemaking with the same results.

Further Reading

There is no full biography of Howe. Facts on him must be gleaned from biographical collections and histories of technology. Egon Larson (pseudonym for Egon Lehrburger), Men Who Shaped the Future: Stories of Invention and Discovery (1954), has a profile of Howe. James Parton, History of the Sewing Machine (1872), discusses Howe and his major achievement. Frederick J. Allen, The Shoe Industry (1916), may be consulted for the application of sewing machines to shoe manufacture. See also Eric J. Hobsbawn, The Age of Revolution, 1789-1848 (1962).

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Elias Howe
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Howe, Elias, 1819-67, American inventor, b. Spencer, Mass. He was apprenticed in 1838 to an instrument maker and watchmaker in Boston at whose suggestion he turned his attention to devising a sewing machine. He exhibited his first machine in 1845 and patented another in 1846. No financial backing was secured in the United States, and in 1846 a third machine was sold in England, together with all rights in Great Britain, to William Thomas. Howe worked with Thomas in London to produce a machine to stitch leather. After a breach between the two, Howe returned to the United States to find his machine being manufactured by others. He brought several suits (including one against Isaac M. Singer) for infringement of patent and finally obtained a judgment for royalty in 1854. With the royalties earned through an extension of his patent (1861-67), he supported during the Civil War an infantry regiment in which he served as a private and in 1865 established in Bridgeport, Conn., the Howe Machine Company.
Wikipedia: Elias Howe
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Elias Howe, Jr.
Personal information
Nationality American
Birth date July 9, 1819(1819-07-09)
Birth place Spencer, Massachusetts
Date of death October 3, 1867 (aged 48)
Place of death Brooklyn, New York
Education apprenticed as mechanic and machinist
Spouse Elizabeth Jennings Ames (m. 1841; d. 1850)
Rose Halladay (d. 1890)
Parents Elias Howe and Polly (Bemis) Howe
Children Jane Robinson Howe,
Simon Ames Howe,
Julia Maria 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, 1819October 3, 1867) was an American inventor and sewing machine pioneer.

Contents

Early life & family

Howe was born on 9 July 1819 to 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 and then 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 Sewing Machine September 10, 1846

Contrary to popular belief that he was the first to conceive of the idea of a sewing machine, many other people, including Walter Hunt, had worked on the idea of such a machine before him. However, Howe refined these ideas into a functional machine and on September 10, 1846, he was awarded the first United States patent (#4750) for a sewing machine using a lockstitch design.

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

His machine contained the three essential features:

  1. a needle with the eye at the point,
  2. a shuttle operating beneath the cloth to form the lock stitch,
  3. and an automatic feed[3]

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 Howe as part of its closing credits, and in 2004 he was inducted into the United States National Inventors Hall of Fame.[1]

Genealogy

Howe was a direct descendant of John Howe 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 an early immigrant to Massachusetts Bay Colony as follows:[9][2]

  • Elias Howe, Jr, son of
  • Elias Howe (1792 – ?), son of
  • Elijah How, Jr. (ca1769 – 1816), son of
  • Elijah How (1731 – 1808), son of
  • Jaazaniah How (1704 – 1762), son of
  • Deliverance Rice (1681 – 1723), daughter of
  • John Rice (1659 – 1719), son of
  • Deacon Edward Rice (1622 – 1712), son of

References

  1. ^ a b c Elias Howe, National Inventors Hall of Fame
  2. ^ a b Edmund Rice (1638) Association, 2009. Descendants of Edmund Rice: The First Nine Generations. (CD-ROM)
  3. ^ "Sewing Machine History". Machine-History.com. http://www.machine-history.com/THE%20SEWING%20MACHINE. Retrieved 10 Dec 2009. 
  4. ^ "Elias Howe Obituary". New York Times, 5 October 1867. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9A0CEFD91731EF34BC4D53DFB667838C679FDE. Retrieved 8 Nov 2009. 
  5. ^ "Muster roll, Company D, 17th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry Regiment". Seventeenth Connecticut Volunteer Infantry homepage. http://home.att.net/~DogSgt/CoD.html. Retrieved 9 Nov 2009. 
  6. ^ Pro Patria: Civil War monument of Connecticut
  7. ^ "French Legion of Honor Recipients". NNDB-Biographic Data Base. http://www.nndb.com/honors/139/000048992/. Retrieved 9 Nov 2009. 
  8. ^ Elias Howe, 19th Century Scientific American Online
  9. ^ "Who was Edmund Rice?". The Edmund Rice (1638) Association, Inc.. http://www.edmund-rice.org/. Retrieved 8 Nov 2009. 

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Isaac Merrit Singer (American inventor)
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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
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