Figure 83.—Florence sewing machine. The Florence machine was based on the patents of Leander W. Langdon, whose first patent was obtained in 1855. Langdon sewing machines were manufactured by the inventor for a few years. It was his patent of March 20, 1860, that was the immediate forerunner of the Florence machine, whose name was derived from the city of manufacture, Florence, Massachusetts. The Howe royalty records of 1860 listed the Florence Sewing Machine Co. as one that took out a license that year. Langdon’s patent of July 14, 1863, was incorporated into the machines manufactured after that date; however, the date is always incorrectly stamped “July 18, 1863.” In 1865, the machine won a silver medal at the Tenth Exhibition of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics Association.
Over 100,000 Florence machines were manufactured by 1870. About 1880 the company changed the name of the machine to Crown. Improvements led to the name New Crown by 1885. About this time the right to use the name Florence for a sewing machine was purchased by a midwestern firm for an entirely different machine. In 1885 the Florence company began to manufacture lamp stoves and heating stoves and shortly thereafter they discontinued the manufacture of sewing machines.
Using the serial numbers, Florence machines can be dated approximately as follows:
| Serial Number | Year |
| 1-500 | 1860 |
| 501-2000 | 1861 |
| 2001-8000 | 1862 |
| 8001-20000 | 1863 |
| 20001-35000 | 1864 |
| 35001-50000 | 1865 |
| 50001-60000 | 1866 |
| 60001-70534 | 1867 |
| 70535-82534 | 1868 |
| 82535-96195 | 1869 |
| 96196-113855 | 1870 |
| 113856-129802 | 1871 |
| 129803-145592 | 1872 |
| 145593-154555 | 1873 |
| 154556-160072 | 1874 |
| 160073-164964 | 1875 |
| 164965-167942 | 1876 |
No record of the number of machines produced each year between 1877 and 1885 is available.
The machine shown here, serial number 49131, was manufactured in 1865. It is stamped with the following patent dates: “Oct. 30, 1855, Mar. 20, 1860, Jan. 22, 1861, and July 18, 1863” and the Wilson patent date “Nov. 12, 1850.” The machines from 1860-1863 are marked with the early Langdon patents, excluding the 1863 one, and they have the additional patent dates of Howe and others: “Sept. 10, 1846, Nov. 12, 1850, Aug. 12, 1851, May 30, 1854, Dec. 19, 1854, Nov. 4, 1856.” (Smithsonian photo 45572-A.)
