Elias Howe was the inventor of the first sewing machine from the United States who was born on July 9, 1819.
The machine he created in 1844 was inspired by his wife's activities when sewing, until he was carried away by a dream and finally he managed to make it happen even though he had to undergo several trials, as well as struggles in defending the patent.
As a child Howe spent much of his time helping his father with farming. Despite his physical weakness and frequent illness, his interest in learning was strong, especially in machines. So, he was not interested in developing intellectually in school.
At the age of 16, Howe, who did not finish school, was accepted to work at a local textile factory as an apprentice mechanic. He used this opportunity to develop his interests and talents. To expand his skills in machinery, he tried his luck to work at a Massachusetts cotton machinery factory in Lowell.
Shortly after working in a textile factory, he moved again to a watch factory in Boston and a scientific instrument factory in Cambridge.
While at Cambridge, Howe heard the term sewing machine from his employer Ari Davis, owner of a precision instrument manufacturing company in Boston.
Howe married in 1840. Due to frequent illness, his wife had to sew clothes to pay for the necessities of life. While watching his wife sewing, Howe thought of a device that could imitate the movement of the hands and arms when sewing.
The tool must implement a process that uses threads from two different sources. So serious in thinking, his creation was carried away by a dream.
In that dream, he was stabbed in the stomach by a cannibal with a spear. The shape of the tip of the spear is what inspired him to create the needle he had been looking for for a long time.
Howe then tried to channel his idea to make a sewing machine. For five years he worked hard to make his dream come true. But this attempt failed. His first sewing machine did not work properly.
Because, he made it imitate the motion of a human hand sewing, namely the needle hole is located at the base of the needle.
Unfortunately, when he started making the tools, his workshop caught fire and burned up to $300 worth of work. But the disaster did not frustrate him.
In 1844, Howe built his second sewing machine. This time he managed to create a needle hole located at the end of the needle like a sewing machine that exists today.
Most of the literature says, Howe's sewing machine is capable of sewing 250 sticks (span) per minute. Howe then tested his sewing machine by competing with a girl who sewed by hand.
Selling the Patents
Although the Howe sewing machine was faster and cleaner. But at that time, not a single American wanted to buy a sewing machine. That's because the sewing machine still looks very complicated and the impact will cause a lot of unemployment.
After successfully patenting his invention in 1846, he promoted his creation in England. Then, he sold his patent to an Englishman, William Thomas in 1847 for 250 pounds.
Under pressure and anxiety, he is forced to accept an unfair employment contract. He worked for William Thomas with a fairly low salary of 5 pounds a week. Howe was ordered to repair his sewing machine so that he could sew corsets, leather, and the like.
However, William Thomas cheated. Until Howe fell ill and he finally saved up to return to the United States. Shortly after returning to Boston, his faithful wife died.
Suffering increases when many entrepreneurs steal their sewing machine ideas and sell them freely. Likewise with entrepreneur Isaac M. Singer. Until finally he fought hard for the patent rights. Howe sued Singer and won his patent in 1854.
Elias Howe's sewing machine in 1845
For five years (1849-1854) he went to court to claim his patent. His efforts succeeded brilliantly. When his patent expired in 1867, he earned royalties on every sewing machine sold in the United States.
And, he became a millionaire who built a sewing machine factory called Howe Machine Company in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
Singer was forced to return 15 thousand US dollars in royalties. From 1856, Howe set a royalty of 5 US dollars for every sewing machine made in the US and one dollar outside the US making him a millionaire.
Before his death, when the American civil war broke out, Howe became a soldier and formed an infantry squad.
All the equipment and clothing of the troops were sewn with the machine he invented. Elias Howe also died in Brooklyn, New York, on October 3, 1867 at the age of 48 years.