HOWE SEWING MACHINE COMPANY (THE)

1859 advertisement in city directory.

HOWE SEWING MACHINE COMPANY (THE). Elias Howe was the inventor of the first American-patented sewing machine.

After he lost his factory job in the Panic of 1837, Howe moved from Spencer to Boston, where he found work in a machinist's shop. It was there that Elias Howe began tinkering with the idea of inventing a mechanical sewing machine.

Eight years later, Elias Howe demonstrated his machine to the public. At 250 stitches a minute, his lockstitch mechanism outstitched the output of five hand sewers with a reputation for speed. Elias Howe patented his lockstitch sewing machine on September 10, 1846 in New Hartford, Connecticut.

For the next nine years Howe worked to enlist interest in his machine, then to protect his patent from imitators who refused to pay Howe royalties for using his designs. His lockstitch mechanism was adopted by others who were developing sewing machines of their own.

After successfully defending his right to a share in the profits of other sewing machine manufacturers, Howe saw his annual income jump from three hundred to more than two hundred thousand dollars a year. Between 1854 and 1867, Howe earned close to two million dollars from his invention. During the CIVIL WAR, he donated a portion of his wealth to equip an infantry regiment for the Union Army and served in the regiment as a private.

The Howe system was the first to disappear as real mass production of better machines took hold.

The 1868-69 Dubuque City Directory listed the Facade Building.

According to the 1875-1876 and 1883 Dubuque City Directory, this business was located at 113 8th.

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Source:

inventors.about.com/od/hstartinventors/a/Elias_Howe.htm

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