FIG. 144.—HOWE’S SEWING MACHINE, 1846.
Howe first commenced his work on the sewing machine in 1844, and although he had made a rough model of that date, he was too poor to follow it up with more practical results until a former schoolmate, George Fisher, provided $500 to build a machine and support his family while it was being constructed, in consideration of which Mr. Fisher was to receive a half interest in the invention. In April, 1845, the machine was completed, and in July he sewed two suits of clothes on it, one for Mr. Fisher and the other for himself. Notwithstanding the success of his machine, which on public exhibition beat five of the swiftest hand sewers, he met only discouragement and disappointment. He, however, built a second machine, which was the basis of his patent, and is the one shown in the [illustration]. After obtaining his United States patent Howe went to England with the hope of introducing his machine there, but, failing, he returned to America, some years later, only to find that his invention had been taken up by infringers, and that sewing machines embodying his invention were being built and sold. These infringers sought to break his patent by endeavoring to prove, but without success, that Howe’s invention was anticipated by the abandoned experiments of Walter Hunt in 1834. Howe won his suit, and the infringers were obliged to pay him royalties, which, for a time, amounted to $25 on each machine. Howe then bought the outstanding interest in his patent, established a factory in New York, and from the profits of his manufacture, and the royalties, he soon reaped a princely fortune of several million dollars. In six years his royalties had grown from $300 to $200,000 a year, and in 1863 his royalties were estimated at $4,000 a day.
A patent that occupied an important place in sewing machine feeds was that granted to Bachelder May 8, 1849, No. 6,439, in which a spiked and endless belt passed horizontally around two pulleys. This patent contained the first continuous feed, and it was re-issued and extended, and ran with dominating claims on the continuous feed, until 1877.
FIG. 145.—WILSON SEWING MACHINE, 1852.
In connection with the development of the sewing machine the name of A. B. Wilson stands next in rank to that of Howe. Wilson invented the rotary hook carrying a bobbin, which took the place of the reciprocating shuttle. This was patented by him June 15, 1852, No. 9,041, and is shown in [Fig. 145]. He also invented the far more important improvement of the four-motion feed, which is a characteristic feature of nearly all practical family sewing machines. This four-motion feed was pooled in the early sewing machine combination with the Bachelder and other patents, and earned for its promotors a far greater pecuniary return than the original Howe sewing machine itself. Estimates place this profit high in the millions. The four-motion feed was patented December 19, 1854, No. 12,116, and it is a comparatively simple affair. Divested of its operating mechanism, it consists simply of a little metal bar serrated with forwardly projecting saw teeth on its upper surface, to which bar, by means of an operating cam, a motion in four directions in the path of a rectangle is given. The serrated bar first rises through a slot in the table, then moves horizontally to advance the cloth, then drops below the table, and finally moves back again horizontally below the table to its starting point.
Upon these two important features—the rotating hook patented by Wilson in 1852, and the four-motion feed, patented in 1854—a large and important business was built. In this business Mr. Nathaniel Wheeler was associated with Mr. Wilson, and the well-known Wheeler & Wilson machines are the result of their enterprise and ingenuity.