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| E. Howe (1819-1867) |
Howe was born in Spencer, Mass. He was a small, delicate boy. As a young man, he went to Boston to learn the machinist trade. While apprenticed to a scientific-instrument maker in Cambridge, he overheard a remark that the man who produced a workable sewing machine would make a fortune. In 1845, he finished a machine that sewed 250 lock stitches a minute, but he failed to find a market for it.
He went to England, and sold British rights to the machine. But he was disillusioned with the treatment he received, and he returned to the United States in 1849. While Howe was in England, others, including Isaac Singer, started manufacturing sewing machines. After a long and determined campaign, Howe established in 1854 his right to collect royalties on all machines manufactured.
