Elias Howe

Elias Howe invented the first practical sewing machine. Born on his parents'farm in Spencer, Massachusetts, Howe worked in his father's grist-and saw-mills as a boy. Later, he worked as an apprentice machinist in a cotton-machinery factory in Lowell, Massachusetts.

While working in Cambridge for master mechanic Ari Davis around 1841, the young Howe overheard a customer remark that the inventor of a practical sewing machine could make a fortune. Howe worked steadily from then on to perfect hisdesign, living first with his father and then a friend, while his wife labored to support the family by taking in hand-sewing.

Howe's efforts yielded a practical sewing machine, patented in 1846, that featured an eye-pointed needle and a double-thread stitch. Howe attempted to market his machine to the clothing industry by staging and winning contests against seamstresses. When no orders resulted, however, Howe sold his invention to an English corset maker named William Thomas, who patented it in his own name and made a fortune. Nevertheless,

Howe worked in England for Thomas from 1847 to 1849.Howe sent his family back to the United States in 1849 by pawning his patentpapers. After he too returned, penniless, he found his wife dying and sewing machines using his patented features selling widely.

He filed a suit and, after long litigation, secured the right to receive royalties on all sewing machines manufactured in the United States from 1854 until his patent expired in1867. In the last ten years of his life, Howe was finally able to enjoy the riches he had earned through his invention.In 1865, Elias established the Howe Machine Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut that was operated by the Stockwell brothers, his brothers-in-law, from 1867 until about 1885. Between 1867 and 1870, Elias's brother Amasa operated a factory in New York City manufacturing sewing machines under the brand name of A.B. Howe. Elias's sewing machine won the gold medal at the Paris Exhibition of 1867, and that same year he was awarded the Légion d'honneur by Napoleon III for his invention.

Howe died at age 48, on 3 October 1867. He was buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn New York with his second wife Rose Halladay who died on 10 Oct 1890. Both Singer and Howe ended their days as multi-millionaires. The Beatles' 1965 movie Help! is dedicated to Howe as part of its closing credits, and in 2004 he was inducted into the United States National Inventors Hall of Fame.[Despite his efforts to sell his machine, other entrepreneurs began manufacturing sewing machines.

Howe was forced to defend his patent in a court case that lasted from 1849 to 1854 because he found that Isaac Singer with cooperation from Walter Hunt had perfected a facsimile of his machine and was selling it with the same lockstitch that Howe had invented and patented. He won the dispute and earned considerable royalties from Singer and others for sales of his invention.

Howe contributed much of the money he earned to the equip the 17th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry Regiment of the Union Army during the Civil War, in which Howe served during the Civil War as a private in Company D and regimental postmaster from August 14, 1862, to July 19, 1865.Howe was a direct descendant of John Howe who arrived in Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630 from Brinklow, Warwickshire, England and settled in Sudbury, Massachusetts.

Howe was also a descendant of Edmund Rice another early immigrant to Massachusetts Bay Colony as follows:     * Elias Howe, Jr, son of

        * Elias Howe (1792 – ?), son of
        * Elijah Howe, Jr. (ca1769 – 1816), son of
        * Elijah Howe (1731 – 1808),[11] son of
        * Jaazaniah Howe (1704 – 1762), son of

            * Deliverance Rice (1681 – 1723), daughter of
            * John Rice (1659 – 1719), son of
            * Deacon Edward Rice (1622 – 1712), son of