Figure 102.—Improved Common Sense sewing machine of about 1870. This machine is so very similar to the New England machines in its feed, threading, looping mechanism, and in its general design, that it is sometimes mistaken for the earlier New England machines (see figs. 112 and 113).
Dating from the early 1870s, the Improved Common Sense machine is about 10 inches in width, two inches larger than the New England machine. The spool holder is similar to Folsom’s patented design, but is less refined. A page from an advertising brochure of the period verifies the name of the machine, but does not identify the manufacturer.
There are no patent dates or identifying names or numbers on the machine illustrated. Although the Empire Co. also produced a machine of this style, their models are marked with their name and with Ketchum’s patent date, April 23, 1863. Of the several styles of machine using the Raymond looper, this type seems to account for the largest volume manufactured, as evidenced by the proportionately higher number of examples still extant. (Smithsonian photo 48328-E.)
Figure 103.—Johnson sewing machine, 1857. Another of the all-but-forgotten manufacturers of the 1850s was Emery, Houghton & Co., who constructed the A.F. Johnson machines. Examination of existing machines indicates that they were manufactured in 1856 and 1857, and possibly a little longer. This one from 1857 bears the serial number 624, so we know that several hundred were manufactured. The head is ornately attractive, slightly reminiscent of Wheeler & Wilson models, and of standard size. (Smithsonian photo 48329-B.)
Figure 104.—“Lady” sewing machine of about 1859. The contemporary name of this machine is unknown. The unusual design of the head, or main support, is based in part on the design patent, number 216, of Isaac F. Baker, issued April 10, 1849, for a “new and useful design[,] for ornamenting furniture[,] called Cora Munro” who was a character in James Fenimore Cooper’s Last of the Mohicans. The design shows a female figure wearing a riding dress and hat that is ornamented with a plume and a bow. Her right hand holds a riding stick and the left, her skirt. Trunks of trees and foliage complete the Baker design, which is known to have been used for girandoles of the period. A companion design was also patented by Baker, number 215, which is in the form of a man in military costume and is named “Major Heyward,” for another character in Last of the Mohicans.
The sewing machines based on the “Cora Munro” design also use branch designs as the overhanging arms. A mother bird sits in the upper branch and descends to feed a young bird as the machine is in operation. The one illustrated was used as the machine submitted with a request for patent by George Hensel of New York City for which patent 24,737 was issued on July 12, 1859. Since Hensel’s patent application was for an improvement in the feed, there was no need for the highly decorative head unless such a machine was commercially available. The patent specifications merely state that the head is “ornamented.” Another sewing machine of this type was used as the patent model by Sidney Parker of Sing Sing, New York, number 24,780, issued on the same date as the Hensel patent. Parker’s patent also covered an improved feeding mechanism. In the patent description, however, the inventor states that “the general form of the machine is not unlike others now in use.” By this he might have meant in the design, or possibly in the basic structural form. Other than the two machines described, no other examples are known to have survived, but “Lady” or “Cora Munro” sewing machines were manufactured. (Smithsonian photo 45506-D.)