Elias Howe Jr. (pronounced /h aʊ/; born on July 9, 1819, and died on October 3, 1867) was an American inventor. He is famous for creating the modern lockstitch sewing machine.

Early life

Elias Howe Jr. was born on July 9, 1819, in Spencer, Massachusetts, to Dr. Elias Howe Sr. (1792–1867) and Polly (Bemis) Howe (1791–1871). He lived in Massachusetts during his childhood and early adulthood. In 1835, he began an apprenticeship at a textile factory in Lowell. After the Panic of 1837 caused many mills to close, he moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to work as a mechanic with carding machinery. He worked alongside his cousin, Nathaniel P. Banks. In early 1838, he started an apprenticeship with Ari Davis, a skilled mechanic in Cambridge who made and fixed precise instruments like chronometers. While working for Davis, Howe came up with the idea for the sewing machine.

He married Elizabeth Jennings Ames, the daughter of Simon Ames and Jane B. Ames, on March 3, 1841, in Cambridge. They had three children: Jane Robinson Howe (1842–1912), Simon Ames Howe (1844–1883), and Julia Maria Howe (1846–1869). Later, he married Rose Halladay.

Invention of sewing machine and career

Howe was not the first person to think of a sewing machine. Many others had already imagined such a machine before him, with one idea dating back to 1790. Some of these people even got patents for their designs and built working machines, with at least one person creating 80 of them. However, Howe made important improvements to the designs of earlier inventors. On September 10, 1846, he received the first United States patent (U.S. patent 4,750) for a sewing machine that used a lockstitch design. His machine included three key features found in most modern sewing machines: a needle with the eye at the tip, a shuttle that moves under the fabric to create the lockstitch, and an automatic feed mechanism that moves the fabric through the machine.

A family history of Howe’s mother’s family includes a possibly untrue story about how he decided to place the eye of the needle at the tip.

After getting his patent, Howe had trouble finding investors in the United States to help make his invention. His older brother, Amasa Bemis Howe, traveled to England in October 1846 to find funding. Amasa sold his first machine to William Thomas of London for £250. Thomas owned a factory that made corsets, umbrellas, and valises. Elias Howe and his family joined Amasa in London in 1848. However, after disagreements with Thomas and because his wife was unwell, Howe returned to the United States with little money. His wife, Elizabeth, who had gone back to the United States earlier, died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, shortly after Howe returned in 1849.

Despite his efforts to sell his machine, other business people started making their own sewing machines. Howe had to fight in court from 1849 to 1854 because Isaac Singer, with help from Walter Hunt, made a copy of his machine and used the same lockstitch design that Howe had invented and patented. Howe won the case and received money from Singer and others for every sale of his invention.

Howe used much of the money he earned to buy supplies for the 17th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War. Howe served as a private in Company D. Because of his poor health, he did light duty, often walking with the help of a shillelagh, and worked as the Regimental Postmaster. He rode between Baltimore and his unit to deliver war news. He joined the army on August 14, 1862, and left on July 19, 1865.

Involvement in inventing the zipper

Howe was given a patent in 1851 for an invention called an "Automatic, Continuous Clothing Closure." Maybe because his sewing machine was very successful, he did not try to sell this invention seriously, and he missed the chance to be recognized for his work.

Adult life and legacy

From 1854 to 1871 or 1872, Elias Howe’s older brother, Amasa Bemis Howe (who died in 1868), and later his son, Benjamin Porter Howe, owned and ran a factory in New York City. The factory made sewing machines under the name Howe Sewing Machine Co. and won a gold medal at the London Exhibition of 1862. Between 1865 and 1867, Elias Howe started The Howe Machine Co. in Bridgeport, Connecticut. His sons-in-law, the Stockwell Brothers, operated the company until about 1886. Elias Howe’s sewing machine received a gold medal at the Paris Exhibition of 1867. That same year, he was awarded the Légion d’honneur by Napoleon III for his invention. In 1873, Benjamin P. Howe sold the Howe Sewing Machine Co. factory and name to The Howe Machine Co., which combined the two companies.

Elias Howe died at age 48 on October 3, 1867, from gout and a large blood clot. He was buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York. His second wife, Rose Halladay, who died on October 10, 1890, is also buried with him. Both Singer and Howe had millions of dollars.

Howe’s father died two months later, on December 28, 1867, one day after his 75th birthday.

Howe was honored with a 5-cent stamp in the Famous American Inventors series released on October 14, 1940. The 1965 Beatles movie Help! is dedicated to his memory. In 2004, he was inducted into the United States National Inventors Hall of Fame.

Genealogy

Howe was a descendant of John Howe, who came to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630 from Brinklow, Warwickshire, England. John Howe settled in Sudbury, Massachusetts. Howe was also a descendant of Edmund Rice, another early immigrant to the Massachusetts Bay Colony.