The modern watch is in reality but a developed type of the clock. Watches were made possible by the introduction of the coiled spring as motive power, instead of the weight. The coiled spring came into use near the end of the fifteenth century, though it is not known where or by whom it was invented. Watches were not introduced into general use in England until the reign of Elizabeth, and then on account of the cost they were confined to the wealthy. At first watches were comparatively large and struck the hours like clocks. After the striking mechanism was abandoned, they were reduced in size and for a time were considered ornamental rather than useful. They were richly adorned with pictures in enamel and with costly jewels. They were set in the heads of canes, in bracelets, and in finger-rings.
Watches and clocks had originally only one hand, which indicated the hour. Minute and second hands were added later. Devices have been introduced to counteract the effect of temperature on the mechanism of time-pieces, so that they run uniformly in all kinds of weather. Within recent years clocks operated with electricity have been invented. With the advent of clock and watch manufacture by machinery, the cost has been so reduced that practically any one may own an accurate time-piece. The United States is one of the foremost countries of the world in the manufacture and sale of clocks and watches.
CHAPTER XVI
SOME MACHINES
The Sewing Machine
Civilization owes the invention of the sewing machine to Elias Howe, an American. Howe was born at Spencer, Massachusetts, July 9, 1819. His father was a miller, and work in the mills gave the son's mind a bent toward machinery. One day in 1839 while Howe was working in a machine-shop in Boston, he overheard a conversation among some men regarding the invention of a knitting machine. "What are you bothering yourselves with a knitting machine for? Why don't you make a sewing machine?" asked one. "I wish I could," was the reply, "but it can't be done." "Oh, yes it can," said the first, "I can make a sewing machine myself." "Well, you do it," replied the second, "and I'll insure you an independent fortune."
This conversation impressed Howe with the idea of producing a sewing machine. The hope of relieving his extreme poverty set him to work on the invention in earnest in the year 1843. George Fisher, a coal and wood dealer of Cambridge, Massachusetts, who was a former schoolmate of Howe, formed a partnership with him for producing the invention. In December, 1844, Howe moved into Fisher's house, set up his shop in the garret, and went to work. In the following April he sewed the first seam with his new machine, and by the middle of May he had sewed all the seams of two suits of clothes, one for himself and one for his partner.
On September 10, 1846, a patent on the sewing machine was issued to Howe from the United States Patent Office at Washington.