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parted with my whole title, and having no means for manufacturing
machines, I was much embarrassed, and did not know what to do."
"My brother, Amasa B. Howe, suggested that my invention might succeed
in England, when, if patented, it would be wholly under my control; and on
my behalf, with means borrowed of my father, my brother took my third
machine to England, to do the best he could with it. He succeeded in selling
my machine and invention for two hundred pounds in cash, and a verbal
agreement that the purchaser should patent my invention in Great Britain, in
his own name; and if it should prove successful, to pay me three pounds
royalty on each machine he made or sold under the patent. He also agreed
to employ me in adapting my machine to his own kind of work at three
pounds a week wages."
"The purchaser obtained a patent for my machine in England, and I went
to London to enter his employment. I then made several machines with
various modifications and improvements, to suit his peculiar kind of work,
and they were put to immediate use; but afterwards we ceased to be
friendly, and I was discharged from his employment. In the meantime my
wife and three children had joined me in London. I had also, at the
suggestion of another person, endorsed a hundred pound note, on which I
was afterwards sued and arrested; but I was finally released on taking the
'poor debtor's oath.' By small loans from fellow mechanics, and by pawning
a few articles, I managed to live with my family in London, until, from
friendly representations from some American acquaintances, the captain of
an American packet was induced to take my wife and children home to the
United States on credit. I was then alone, and extremely poor, in a foreign
land."
"My invention was patented, and in successful use in England, but without
any profit to me, and wholly out of my control. In the spring of 1849 I was
indebted to a Scottish mechanic for a steerage passage, and I returned to the
United States, poorer, if possible, than when I left. On my return I found my
wife and children very destitute; all other personal effects, save what they
had on, being still detained to secure payment for their passage home. My
wife was sick, and died within ten days after my arrival. During my absence
in England a considerable number of sewing-machines had been made, and
put in operation in different parts of the United States; some of these by the
procurement of the friend to whom I had sold half of my American patent
but most of them infringements on my patent."
"Having obtained from my father, in the summer of 1849, an agreement to
re-convey to me his half of my patent; I tried to induce the friend who held
the other half to join me in prosecuting our rights against infringers, but he
declined to do so. After failing to make any satisfactory settlement with the
infringers, who well knew my poverty and embarrassments, I filed a bill in
equity against one of such persons, and made my friend a party defendant
also, in order to bring him into court as co-owner of my machine. After this
he joined me in a suit at law against another infringer. In this case the
validity of my patent was fully established by a verdict and judgment at
law. After several transfers of the half share sold my friend, I purchased it
back, about five years ago, and I am now sole owner of the American
patent."
Thus did Howe modestly tell the story of his terrible trials and suffering.
After long litigation Mr. Howe's claim to have been the original inventor
was legally and irreversibly established, the judge deciding, "that there was
no evidence which left a shadow of doubt that for all the benefit conferred
upon the public by the introduction of the sewing-machine the public are
indebted to Mr. Howe." Therefore to him all inventors or improvers had to
pay a royalty on each machine they made. From being a poor man, living in
a garret, Howe became one of the most noted millionaires in America.
Doubtless many of our readers would be interested in the principles
involved in Mr. Howe's machine; which seem to be essential in all two-
threaded machines. We find that two threads are employed, one of which is
carried through the cloth by means of a curved pointed needle; the needle
used has the eye that is to receive the thread, about an eighth of an inch
from the pointed end. When the thread is carried through the cloth, which
may be done to the distance of about three-fourths of an inch the thread will
be stretched above the curved needle, something like a bowstring, leaving a
small open space between the two. A small shuttle, carrying a bobbin, filled
with thread, is then made to pass entirely through this open space, between
the needle and the thread which it carries; and when the shuttle is returned
the thread which was carried in by the needle is surrounded by that received
from the shuttle; as the needle is drawn out, it forces that which was
received from the shuttle into the body of the cloth giving the seam formed
the same appearance on each side of the cloth.
Thus, according to this arrangement, a stitch is made at every back and
forth movement of the shuttle. The two thicknesses of cloth that are to be
sewed, are held upon pointed wires which project out from a metallic plate,
like the teeth of a comb, but at a considerable distance from each other,
these pointed wires sustaining the cloth, and answering the purpose of
ordinary basting. The metallic plate, from which these wires project, has
numerous holes through it, which answer the purpose of rack teeth in
enabling the plate to move forward, by means of a pinion, as the stitches are
taken. The distance to which the plate is moved, and, consequently, the
length of the stitches may be regulated at pleasure.
He opened a manufactory for his machines where he could carry on the
business in a small way. From this small beginning his business grew until,
with the royalties he received, his income reached $200,000 annually.
Notwithstanding his wealth, he enlisted in the war as a private, and his
principles and sympathy were displayed at one time when, seeing the men
needy, the government having been unable to pay promptly, he himself
advanced enough money to pay the entire regiment. In the month of
October, 1867, at the early age of forty-eight he died.
But he had lived long enough to see his machine adopted and appreciated
as one of the greatest labor-saving devices in the world. It is estimated that
to-day the sewing-machine saves annually the enormous sum of
$500,000,000. It has been truly said that had it not been for the sewing-
machine it would have been impossible to have clothed and kept clothed the
vast armies employed on both sides during the late war. Great, indeed, is a
world's benefactor; such is Elias Howe.
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