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E
H
, J
.
Difference of opinion there may be as to the abstract question, who first
conceived the principle involved in sewing by machinery, or in respect to
who first constructed a machine that would fulfill that idea; but so far as
great results are concerned the world must be considered as indebted to
Elias Howe, Jr., a New England mechanic, born and reared in obscurity, and
at an early age thrown upon his own resources. He was born at Spencer,
Massachusetts, July 9th, 1819. His father was a farmer and miller, but at
sixteen he left home, engaging in a cotton mill. Space will not permit us to
follow him through all the details of his varied experience during his early
years. It will be sufficient to say that he lived in Boston in his twentieth
year, where he was working in a machine-shop. He was a good workman,
having learned his trade at Harvard by the side of his cousin, Nathaniel
Banks, who has since greatly distinguished himself as a general in the
United States army and speaker of the House of Representatives.
He was married soon after, and when twenty-two or three, his health
failing, he found himself surrounded by a family, and poverty staring him in
the face. The idea suggested itself to Howe in the following manner, as
described by Parton in the
Atlantic Monthly
: "In the year 1839 two men in
Boston, one a mechanic, the other a capitalist, were striving to produce a
knitting-machine, which proved to be a task beyond their strength. When
the inventor was at his wit's end, his capitalist brought the machine to the
shop of Ari Davis, to see if that eccentric genius could suggest the solution
of the difficulty, and make the machine work. The shop, resolving itself into
a committee of the whole, gathered about the knitting-machine and its
proprietor, and were listening to an explanation of its principles, when
Davis, in his wild, extravagant way, broke in with the question: 'What are
you bothering yourself with a knitting-machine for? Why don't you make a
sewing-machine?' 'I wish I could,' said the capitalist, 'but it can't be done,'
'Oh, yes, it can,' said Davis. 'I can make a sewing-machine myself.' 'Well,'
said the other; 'you do it, Davis, and I'll insure you an independent fortune.'
There the conversation dropped, and was never resumed. The boastful
remark of the master of the shop was considered one of his sallies of
affected extravagance, as it really was, and the response of the capitalist to
it was uttered without a thought of producing an effect. Nor did it produce
any effect upon the person to whom it was addressed, as Davis never
attempted to construct a sewing-machine.
"Among the workmen who stood by and listened to this conversation was
a young man from the country, a new hand named Elias Howe, then twenty
years old. The person whom we have named capitalist, a well-dressed and
fine looking man, somewhat consequential in his manners, was an imposing
figure in the eyes of this youth, new to city ways, and he was much
impressed with the emphatic assurance that a fortune was in store for the
man who would invent a sewing-machine. He was the more struck with it
because he had already amused himself with inventing some slight
improvements, and recently he had caught from Davis the habit of
meditating new devices. The spirit of invention, as all mechanics know, is
exceedingly contagious. One man in a shop who invents something that
proves successful will give the mania to half his companions, and the very
apprentices will be tinkering over a device after their day's work is done."
Thus it was that the idea of a sewing-machine first entered Howe's mind.
The following is the touching story of Howe's early struggle and final
triumph as told by himself: "I commenced the invention of my sewing-
machine as early as 1841, when I was twenty-two years of age. Being then
dependent on my daily labor for the support of myself and my family I
could not devote my attention to the subject during the working hours of the
day, but I thought on it when I could, day and night. It grew on until 1844; I
felt impelled to yield my whole time to it. During this period I worked on
my invention mentally as much as I could, having only the aid of needles
and such other small devices as I could carry in my pockets, and use at
irregular intervals of daily labor at my trade. I was poor, but with promises
of aid from a friend, I thereafter devoted myself exclusively to the
construction and practical completion of my machine. I worked alone in an
upper room in my friend's house, and finished my first machine by the
middle of May, 1845.
"This was a period of intense and persistent application, of all the powers I
possessed, to the practical embodiment of my mechanical ideas into a
successful sewing-machine. I soon tested the practical success of my first
machine by sewing with it all the principal seams in two suits of clothes,
one for myself, and one for my friend. Our clothes were as well made as
any made by hand-sewing. I still have my first machine; and it will now
sew as good a seam as any sewing-machine known to me. My first machine
was described in the specification of my patent, and I then made a second
machine, to be deposited in the patent office as a model."
"I then conveyed one-half of my invention and patent to my friend, for
five hundred dollars; in fact, though a much larger sum (ten thousand
dollars) was named in the deed at his suggestion. My patent was issued on
the 10th of September, 1846. I made a third machine, which I tried to get
into use on terms satisfactory to myself and friend. For this purpose I
endeavored to attract notice to it by working with it in tailor shops, and
exhibited it to all who desired to become acquainted with it. After my
patent was obtained, my friend declined to aid me further. I then owed him
about two thousand dollars, and I was also in debt to my father, to whom I
conveyed the remaining half of my patent for two thousand dollars. Having
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