Elias Howe
Biography from A
History of American Manufactures... (1866)
Born: 9 July 1819
Died: 3 Oct
1867
Elias Howe, Jr., the author of one of
the great inventions of modern times, was born in Spencer,
Massachusetts, in 1819. His father was a farmer and a miller, and young
Howe aided him in these pursuits, attending school in the winter, until
he was seventeen years old, when he was apprenticed to learn the art of
the machinist. When be had attained his majority he married, and not
long after he conceived the idea of making a machine that would sew, at
which be diligently labored in all spare hours after the day's labor.
At one time, while in Lowell, he earned but fifty cents a day, and when
his wages were increased to sixty-two and a half cents he states that
he felt about as well pleased as he has ever felt since. For the years
he experimented on the various movements of the machine, and on the
10th of September, 1846, while residing at Cambridgeport, he obtained
his first patent for the first practical Sewing Machine. Singularly
enough," says an English chronicler, "his fellow-countrymen did not at
once see the merit of his invention, and its introduction to the public
was first made in, England. Shortly after his patent was obtained he
sent over a machine to this country, and disposed of the English patent
to Mr. Thomas, for, we believe, £200! Mr. Howe himself
visited this country soon after the arrival of his machine, and
superintended its adaptation to the work required to be done by Mr.
Thomas—staymaking. Beyond the £200, we do not see
that poor Howe did any good for himself over here ; for in 1849 he
returned again to America, so poorly off that he was obliged to work
his way home before the mast."
On his return to the United Stares he became involved in a number of
expensive lawsuits to establish the validity of his patent, and it was
not until 1853 that he granted his first license. Thenceforward,
however, fortune began to smile upon him, and in 1855 he had
repurchased all the patents he had sold during his Season of adversity.
He now receives a royalty upon every Sewing Machine manufactured in the
United States, and his income from this source cannot be less than
$250,000 a year, a large prize for an humble mechanic to win, but yet
incomparably trifling compared with the benefit conferred upon the
world by the gift. of his labor-saving machine.
In 1863 be organized a Company, of which he is now President, and
erected a large Sewing manufactory at Bridgeport, Connecticut. See
Manufactures of Bridgeport. Vol. III.
Text from: Cyclopaedia
of American Literature:
Embracing Personal and Critical Notices of Authors, and and selections
from their writings. From the earliest period to the present day; with
portraits, autographs, and other illustrations,
by Evert
A(ugustus) Duyckinck, published by C. Scribner (1866)
