the same motions as a human hand? No; there may be another kind of stitch than that wrought by a seamstress, quite as serviceable, though sewn by sinews of brass and steel." This thought was the turning-point which divided failure from success. It is likely that he had seen chainstitch machines, for they were not uncommon, but he wished to build something better. There is no reason to believe that Hunt's contrivances ever came under his notice. On lines wholly original, Howe imagined a lock-stitch machine, and embarked on the labor of giving it form and substance.

Long before he was born, thatchers and lacemakers had pierced their needles with eyes near their points, so as to shorten their paths, and save thread from undue friction. Such needles had been adopted by Walter Hunt in 1840, and had been patented in England by Newton and Archbold, in 1841, for their chain-stitch machine. Howe adopted this eye-pointed needle, and united with it a shuttle such as had clacked around him in looms all his life. He was wise in thus choosing a loom-stitch where one thread interweaves itself firmly with another; and yet, when he turned his back on chain-stitch machines it was only after they had taught him two golden lessons. First, how a needle, fixed in a holder which it never leaves, may vibrate at a pace duly varied. Second, how a simple mechanism may be timed so that a needle, when below its cloth, expands one loop of thread for the admission of a second such loop. The new devices he had to invent were chiefly a shuttle duly laden with a lower thread, and the means to throw this shuttle at proper intervals through loops of an upper thread. Howe at this time was no longer in the employ of Davis: he was at work on his own account, giving every moment he could spare to his model. He completed it toward the close of 1844, and it sewed a fairly good seam, with promise of sewing still better when improved in plan and workmanship.

Howe's father at this time was living in Cambridge, where he was cutting palm leaves into strips for hats on a machine invented by his brother William. Elias, junior, with a view to economy, went to live at his father's house, setting up a lathe so as to execute any odd jobs that might be offered him. During the next few months he worked at little else than his sewing machine, exciting his neighbors to remark that he was simply wasting his time. His odd jobs were so few that often the inventor was without a dollar in his pocket. His father was anxious to help him, but could do nothing, as a fire had destroyed the palm-leaf machine and swept away all his earnings. As Elias Howe from day to day proceeded with his model, he clearly saw that his design would miss a fair test if his model were not built with the same precision as a clock. And where were the means for such an outlay to come from, when money for bread was frequently lacking?

Just then a friend came to his rescue, George Fisher, a fuel dealer. He had recently come into a legacy, and as this windfall was still warm in his pocket, he was in the humor to take up any promising speculation. Many a time had he heard Howe's confident hopes of triumph and fortune, and now Fisher was prevailed upon to become a partner with Howe in his great project of a sewing machine. Fisher was to receive the Howe family into his house as guests; and while Howe was perfecting his model, Fisher was to advance $500 toward buying materials and tools. If the machine proved worthy of a patent, a half share therein was to be Fisher's property. Early in 1844, Howe took up his quarters with Fisher, installing his lathe in a low-studded attic. For a long time nobody but Fisher shared Howe's hopes of victory. Fisher once testified in court: "I was the only one of his neighbors and friends who had any confidence in the success of his invention. Howe was gen

erally regarded as visionary in undertaking anything of the kind, and I was thought foolish to assist him."

During the winter of 1844-45, Howe labored steadily at his machine. So clear and vivid was his imagination that he seemed to be copying a model as it stood before him, instead of giving form to conceptions which were as yet conceptions only. This picturing faculty had the happy effect that Howe was not delayed by a single misfit as part joined part week after week. By April, 1845, the stitchforming mechanism was advanced to the point where it sewed with evenness and smoothness. Within less than a month Howe finished his model, and his invention, in every essential feature, was complete. In July it sewed a suit of clothes for Fisher, and another suit for himself. These garments were of strong material, yet their stitches outlasted the cloth. Every contrivance in Howe's original model has since his day been bettered or transmuted, for what is one inventor as compared with all other inventors? And many new devices which never entered the head of Elias Howe have been added to his model during the past sixty years. But at this hour no successful sewing machine plies in freedom from debt to Howe's design of 1845. Let us look at its construction:

A firm base, A, carries an overhanging arm, B. Through the side and extremity of this arm works a shaft, C, to which is attached the fly-wheel, D, driven by hand at E. The thread for the top stitch is taken continuously from the spool, F, and fed to the curved needle, a, through a spring, b. The needle works through the cloth at c. The cloth is carried upon pins, d. The needle arm, G, and the baster or feed-plate, H, work so that the plate moves the cloth forward one stage at the completion of every stitch. The shuttle is driven by a rod, J, which is caused to vibrate backwards and forwards by means of the cam, L. The cam, screwed upon the sleeve, Q, actuates the lever, P,

which action gives a rocking motion to the short shaft, O, and the needle arm, on being connected with this, vibrates,

carrying the needle into and out of the cloth at each revolution of the hand-wheel. The cloth to be sewn is suspended vertically by pins on the edge of its baster plate, H, which

has holes engaging with the teeth of a small pinion which moves intermittently.

This feed was the least happy element in Howe's machine. A superior feed, in wheel form, was invented by John J. Greenough in 1842, and was included in his through-andthrough sewing machine patented in that year. Greenough's wheel-feed allowed cloth to be sewn in any direction whatever, Howe's feed was restricted to a straight line. This limitation was soon overcome by the inventors who took up Howe's machine where he left it, and improved it in every feature.

To Howe let us return. When he had improved his devices for tension, so as to stitch with neatness and uniformity, he invited a tailor from Boston to Cambridge to use the machine, and pass upon its merits and faults. The tailor declined his invitation: he believed that if Howe's expectations were fulfilled, the tailoring brotherhood would soon be reduced to beggary. Howe then canvassed other tailors, whom he besought to test his invention. No, said they, with united breath. Their objections were manifold; they were certain that no machine work could be so strong and even as hand stitching. "To the proof," quoth Howe. Bringing his machine to the Quincy Hall Clothing Factory, he sat in front of it and sewed seams in any garment handed to him. Visitors were astonished to watch him sew 250 perfect stitches in a minute, a pace at least sevenfold that of handwork. For two weeks Howe sewed for all comers, and responded to queries with his May morning smile. There was a vein of sport in him, and it came out as he pitted his stitcher against a united band of five young seamstresses, chosen for their speed. He was ungallant enough to win; and not only in pace did he surpass his competitors; they acknowledged his seam to be the best of the six. Yet for all this repeated triumph of brass and steel over fingers of flesh and blood, nobody took any real