10 things about Elias Howe, the man who gave us the first practical sewing machine
Elias Howe gave us the sewing machine for commercial use equipped with a single needle stitching mechanism that is common to most modern machines.
American inventor Elias Howe's practical sewing machine was the first-of-its-kind that was capable enough of being a commercial bestseller and brought about a booming revolution in the garment industry.
Howe spent five years in developing this machine and in 1846, he was finally granted a patent for it. Howe was born on July 9, 1819, and passed away on October 2, 1867.
Tracing the life of the machinery genius Elias Howe in 10 points:
1. Elias Howe Jr was born on July 9, 1819, to the American couple Dr Elias Howe Sr and Polly (Bemis) Howe in Spencer, Massachusetts.
2. Howe spent his childhood and early adult years in his hometown itself where he apprenticed in a textile factory in Lowell.
3. After the mills closed down due to the Panic of 1837, he moved to Cambridge to work as a mechanic with carding machinery and trained in the shop of a master mechanic who specialized in the manufacture and repair of chronometers and other precision instruments.
4. Working under the master mechanic Ari Davis, Howe got the idea of the sewing machine being able to earn him a fortune.
5. Even though many before him had formulated the idea of a machine that could sew, he originated significant refinements to the design concepts of the machine, the most major one being the lockstitch design (-- the most common mechanical stitch made by a sewing machine, commonly referred to as 'single needle stitching').
6. After working on the machine for five years, he was granted a patent for it in the US, but since it attracted little attention, he sold it to England and worked harder in the same country to perfect the machine for use in sewing leather and similar materials.
7. After his financial condition worsened, he sent his family back to the US and when he returned, he found that his sewing machine was being widely manufactured and sold in someone else's name.
8. Howe finally established his patent rights in 1854 after much litigation, and from then until 1867, when his patent expired, he received royalties on all sewing machines produced in the United States.
9. His invention revolutionized the garment industry, was widely used in homes, and three essential features of his machine are still key to most modern machines:
- a needle with the eye at the point
- a shuttle operating beneath the cloth to form the lock stitch
- an automatic feed
10. Although Howe passed away at age 48 due to gout and a massive blood clot, his legacy remains with a 5-cent stamp in the Famous American Inventors series, an induction into the United States National Inventors Hall of Fame and a sculpture at Seaside Park, Connecticut.
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