1846: Elias Howe patents the first practical sewing machine and threads his way into the fabric of history.
French tailor Barthelemy Thimonnier patented a device in 1830 that mechanized the typical hand-sewing motions to create a simple chain stitch. He planned to mass-produce uniforms for the French army. His competition had different ideas.
About 200 tailors rioted on the morning of Jan. 20, 1831, ransacking Thimonnier’s factory, destroying 80 sewing machines and throwing the pieces out the windows. The inventor fled for his life. Thimonnier conceived of a machine that could sew a backstitch (which would be more durable), but resolutely spent the next two decades trying to perfect various permutations of his original machine and its unreliable chain stitch.
American Walter Hunt came up with a back-stitching sewing machine in the early 1830s, but was afraid it would result in the massive unemployment of seamstresses. So he declined to patent it.
(Hunt lives on instead as the barely known inventor of the safety pin, as well as a precursor of the repeating rifle, a gong for fire engines, a forest saw, a stove to burn hard coal, a knife sharpener, a streetcar bell, synthetic stone, road-sweeping machinery, bicycle improvements, ice plows and, oh yes, paper collars for shirts.)
Howe worked for Ari Davis, a Boston precision machinist who told him that whoever invented a practical sewing machine would get rich. Howe spent eight years of his spare time working on such a device. He was often ill, and his wife had to take on sewing jobs — oh, the irony! — to help the family make ends meet.
Howe thought that the complex motions of human arms, hands and fingers were far too complex to emulate with a machine. Rather than copy that, he would use established machine techniques.
He moved the eye of the needle to the point and devised a shuttle to move a second thread through the loop created by the needle. This created a tight lock stitch that was stronger than Thimonnier’s chain stitch.
At 250 stitches per minute, Howe’s machine was able to out-sew five humans at a demonstration in 1845. Selling them was a problem, however, largely because of the $300 price tag — more than $8,000 in today’s money.
He patented the device in 1846, but his American workshop burned down, and he got swindled out of the British royalties. He returned to Boston penniless. As an inventor, Howe seemed a lousy businessman.
But sewing machines were all the rage, thanks to Isaac Singer’s better marketing and improved design: a needle that went up and down instead of sideways, and power from a foot treadle instead of a hand crank. (Household electricity wasn’t in the picture yet.)
Howe mortgaged his father’s farm to raise the funds to sue Singer and others for patent infringement. It took years, but Howe prevailed in 1854, winning a judgment of $15,000 ($400,000 today).
Howe, Singer and other manufacturers pooled their patents two years later. Howe got a $5 royalty for every machine sold in the United States and a dollar for each one sold elsewhere. That added up to $2 million, or $50 million in today’s skins.
Howe’s 21-year patent and 48-year life both expired in 1867.
Source: Libraries of Curious and Unusual Facts, Inventive Genius, Time Life Books
Image: This wood engraving of Elias Howe appeared in an 1867 issue of Harper’s Weekly.
See Also:
- Geek Art Gallery: Needlework Brings Together Programmers, Crafters
- Product Review: Bernina Artista 730E Computerized Sewing Machine
- Open Source Embroidery
- Crafty Geeks Launch Sewing 2.0
- Court: Sewing Patterns are Data, Not Code
- Sept. 23, 1846: Neptune Right Where They Said It Would Be
- Sept. 30, 1846: Ether He Was the First or He Wasn’t
- Sept. 10, 1977: Heads Roll for the Last Time in France
- Sept. 10, 1984: DNA Leaves Its Print
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