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Elias Howe

 
Elias Howe

 
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Elias Howe (July 9, 1819 – October 3, 1867) was an American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 inventor
Inventor

An inventor is a person who creates or discovers a new method, form, device or other useful means. The word inventor comes form the latin verb invenire, invent-, to find....
 and sewing machine
Sewing machine

A sewing machine is a textile machine used to stitch fabric or other material together with thread. Sewing machines were invented during the first Industrial Revolution to decrease the amount of manual sewing work performed in clothing companies....
 pioneer. He was born in Spencer
Spencer, Massachusetts

Spencer is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 11,691 at the 2000 census.For geographic and demographic information on the census-designated place Spencer, please see the article Spencer , Massachusetts, Massachusetts....
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a U.S. state located in the New England region of the Northeastern United States United States. It borders Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north....
.

Howe spent his childhood and early adult years in Massachusetts where he apprenticed in a textile factory and then for a master mechanic.

Contrary to popular belief, he invented the sewing machine yet many other people, including Walter Hunt
Walter Hunt

Walter Hunt was an United States of America mechanic. He lived and worked in New York. Through the course of his work he became renowned for being a prolific inventor, notably of the sewing machine , safety pin , a forerunner of the Winchester repeating rifle, a successful flax spinner, knife sharpener, streetcar bell , hard-coal-burning st...
, had worked on the idea of such a machine before him.






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Elias Howe (July 9, 1819 – October 3, 1867) was an American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 inventor
Inventor

An inventor is a person who creates or discovers a new method, form, device or other useful means. The word inventor comes form the latin verb invenire, invent-, to find....
 and sewing machine
Sewing machine

A sewing machine is a textile machine used to stitch fabric or other material together with thread. Sewing machines were invented during the first Industrial Revolution to decrease the amount of manual sewing work performed in clothing companies....
 pioneer. He was born in Spencer
Spencer, Massachusetts

Spencer is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 11,691 at the 2000 census.For geographic and demographic information on the census-designated place Spencer, please see the article Spencer , Massachusetts, Massachusetts....
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a U.S. state located in the New England region of the Northeastern United States United States. It borders Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north....
.

Howe spent his childhood and early adult years in Massachusetts where he apprenticed in a textile factory and then for a master mechanic.

Contrary to popular belief, he invented the sewing machine yet many other people, including Walter Hunt
Walter Hunt

Walter Hunt was an United States of America mechanic. He lived and worked in New York. Through the course of his work he became renowned for being a prolific inventor, notably of the sewing machine , safety pin , a forerunner of the Winchester repeating rifle, a successful flax spinner, knife sharpener, streetcar bell , hard-coal-burning st...
, had worked on the idea of such a machine before him. However, Howe refined these ideas into a functional machine and on September 10, 1846, he was awarded the first United States patent
Patent

A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a state to an inventor or his assignee for a term of patent in exchange for a disclosure of an invention....
 (#4750) for a sewing machine using a lockstitch
Lockstitch

A lockstitch is the mechanical stitch most commonly made by a sewing machine....
 design.

Howe was forced to defend his patent in 1854 because when he came back to the United States from a trip to Europe, he found that Isaac Singer
Isaac Singer

Isaac Merritt Singer was an inventor, actor, and entrepreneur. He made important improvements in the design of the sewing machine and was the founder of the Singer Corporation....
 had perfected his machine and was selling it with the same lockstitch that Howe had invented. He won the dispute and earned royalties
Royalties

Royalties are usage-based payments made by one party to another for ongoing use of an asset, sometimes an intellectual property right.Royalties can be determined as a percentage of gross or net sales derived from use of the asset or a fixed price per unit sold....
. Howe contributed much of the money he earned to the Union Army during the Civil War. Howe served in the U.S. Army in the Civil War as a private from August 14, 1862, to July 19, 1865.

In 1865, he established the Howe Machine Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut
Bridgeport, Connecticut

Bridgeport is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. Located in and the former county seat of Fairfield County, Connecticut, the city had an estimated population of 137,912 in 2006 and is the core of the Greater Bridgeport area....
. His sewing machine won the gold medal at the Paris Exhibition of 1867.

Howe died at age 48, in 1867. He was buried in Green-Wood Cemetery
Green-Wood Cemetery

Green-Wood Cemetery was founded in 1838 as a rural cemetery in Kings County, New York, now in Brooklyn. It was granted National Historic Landmark status in 2006 by the U.S....
 in Brooklyn, New York
New York

The State of New York is a U.S. state in the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeastern United States regions of the United States and is the nation's List of U.S....
 although some say he was buried in London, England. Both Singer and Howe ended their days as multi-millionaires. Howe was inducted in 2004 into the United States National Inventors Hall of Fame.

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