And in reviewing all these matters, he said: "I have again and again recalled the occasion, and the incident of our first interview at Albany; and never have I done so without renewing in my mind the vivid emotion it originally caused. That seemed, and does still seem to me, the turning point in my destiny, the dividing line between light and darkness, in my career upon earth, for it was the first actual recognition of my usefulness to my fellow-men." Why was it that Fulton won renown. True it was that he possessed unusual genius. We know that every one cannot be a Fulton, yet how few there are who would have exercised the stick-to-it-ive-ness that he was obliged to do before success came. How few would have passed through the trials and withstood the sneers that Robert Fulton passed through. On the 24th of February, 1815, he died, when the honor of first crossing the ocean by steam power was being contemplated by him, but his fame was established, and need naught to enhance it.
[Elias Howe, Jr.]
Difference of opinion there may be as to the abstract question, who first conceived the principle involved in sewing by machinery, or in respect to who first constructed a machine that would fulfill that idea; but so far as great results are concerned the world must be considered as indebted to Elias Howe, Jr., a New England mechanic, born and reared in obscurity, and at an early age thrown upon his own resources. He was born at Spencer, Massachusetts, July 9th, 1819. His father was a farmer and miller, but at sixteen he left home, engaging in a cotton mill. Space will not permit us to follow him through all the details of his varied experience during his early years. It will be sufficient to say that he lived in Boston in his twentieth year, where he was working in a machine-shop. He was a good workman, having learned his trade at Harvard by the side of his cousin, Nathaniel Banks, who has since greatly distinguished himself as a general in the United States army and speaker of the House of Representatives.
He was married soon after, and when twenty-two or three, his health failing, he found himself surrounded by a family, and poverty staring him in the face. The idea suggested itself to Howe in the following manner, as described by Parton in the Atlantic Monthly: "In the year 1839 two men in Boston, one a mechanic, the other a capitalist, were striving to produce a knitting-machine, which proved to be a task beyond their strength. When the inventor was at his wit's end, his capitalist brought the machine to the shop of Ari Davis, to see if that eccentric genius could suggest the solution of the difficulty, and make the machine work. The shop, resolving itself into a committee of the whole, gathered about the knitting-machine and its proprietor, and were listening to an explanation of its principles, when Davis, in his wild, extravagant way, broke in with the question: 'What are you bothering yourself with a knitting-machine for? Why don't you make a sewing-machine?' 'I wish I could,' said the capitalist, 'but it can't be done,' 'Oh, yes, it can,' said Davis. 'I can make a sewing-machine myself.' 'Well,' said the other; 'you do it, Davis, and I'll insure you an independent fortune.' There the conversation dropped, and was never resumed. The boastful remark of the master of the shop was considered one of his sallies of affected extravagance, as it really was, and the response of the capitalist to it was uttered without a thought of producing an effect. Nor did it produce any effect upon the person to whom it was addressed, as Davis never attempted to construct a sewing-machine.
"Among the workmen who stood by and listened to this conversation was a young man from the country, a new hand named Elias Howe, then twenty years old. The person whom we have named capitalist, a well-dressed and fine looking man, somewhat consequential in his manners, was an imposing figure in the eyes of this youth, new to city ways, and he was much impressed with the emphatic assurance that a fortune was in store for the man who would invent a sewing-machine. He was the more struck with it because he had already amused himself with inventing some slight improvements, and recently he had caught from Davis the habit of meditating new devices. The spirit of invention, as all mechanics know, is exceedingly contagious. One man in a shop who invents something that proves successful will give the mania to half his companions, and the very apprentices will be tinkering over a device after their day's work is done."
Thus it was that the idea of a sewing-machine first entered Howe's mind. The following is the touching story of Howe's early struggle and final triumph as told by himself: "I commenced the invention of my sewing-machine as early as 1841, when I was twenty-two years of age. Being then dependent on my daily labor for the support of myself and my family I could not devote my attention to the subject during the working hours of the day, but I thought on it when I could, day and night. It grew on until 1844; I felt impelled to yield my whole time to it. During this period I worked on my invention mentally as much as I could, having only the aid of needles and such other small devices as I could carry in my pockets, and use at irregular intervals of daily labor at my trade. I was poor, but with promises of aid from a friend, I thereafter devoted myself exclusively to the construction and practical completion of my machine. I worked alone in an upper room in my friend's house, and finished my first machine by the middle of May, 1845.
"This was a period of intense and persistent application, of all the powers I possessed, to the practical embodiment of my mechanical ideas into a successful sewing-machine. I soon tested the practical success of my first machine by sewing with it all the principal seams in two suits of clothes, one for myself, and one for my friend. Our clothes were as well made as any made by hand-sewing. I still have my first machine; and it will now sew as good a seam as any sewing-machine known to me. My first machine was described in the specification of my patent, and I then made a second machine, to be deposited in the patent office as a model."
"I then conveyed one-half of my invention and patent to my friend, for five hundred dollars; in fact, though a much larger sum (ten thousand dollars) was named in the deed at his suggestion. My patent was issued on the 10th of September, 1846. I made a third machine, which I tried to get into use on terms satisfactory to myself and friend. For this purpose I endeavored to attract notice to it by working with it in tailor shops, and exhibited it to all who desired to become acquainted with it. After my patent was obtained, my friend declined to aid me further. I then owed him about two thousand dollars, and I was also in debt to my father, to whom I conveyed the remaining half of my patent for two thousand dollars. Having parted with my whole title, and having no means for manufacturing machines, I was much embarrassed, and did not know what to do."
"My brother, Amasa B. Howe, suggested that my invention might succeed in England, when, if patented, it would be wholly under my control; and on my behalf, with means borrowed of my father, my brother took my third machine to England, to do the best he could with it. He succeeded in selling my machine and invention for two hundred pounds in cash, and a verbal agreement that the purchaser should patent my invention in Great Britain, in his own name; and if it should prove successful, to pay me three pounds royalty on each machine he made or sold under the patent. He also agreed to employ me in adapting my machine to his own kind of work at three pounds a week wages."