HOWE SEWING MACHINE COMPANY
by Amas Bemis Howe
New York
1854 - 1873
by Grace Rogers Cooper
It is difficult for many to believe that the stamped legend “Elias Howe patent, September 10, 1846” does not certify that a machine is an original Howe. Although Elias Howe was granted a patent for the lockstitch machine in 1846, he did not establish a sewing machine factory for about twenty years. Early in the 1850s and later through the “Combination,” however, he licensed others to make machines using his patent. These machines bore that patent date for which a royalty was being paid.
Among his early licensees was his elder brother Amasa who organized the Howe Sewing Machine Co. in 1854. initially production was on a very modest scale, 60 machines in 1854 and 53 machines in 1855.
The Amasa Howe machines were good well made sewing machines and after 1860 production increased. The Howe S.M.Co. expanded into Europe with agents in London and Paris.
From 1860 the London agent was Luke McKernan who sold "Howe's sewing machines" at 142 High Holborn and later at 98 Cheapside.
In June 1861 the Howe S.M.Co. opened its own depot nearby at 8 Ludgate St., St. Paul's with Nahum Salamon as manager.
A.B.Howe took out patents in England (patent number 1987 of 9th August 1861 and number 2086 of 21st August 1861) for improvements to his classic "Howe" machine.
McKernan was clearly upset by the loss of trade and in December 1861 the Howe S.M.Co took McKernan to the High Court for an injunction to restrain him.
The Amasa Howe machines were very good ones and won the prize medal at the "1862 London International Exhibition". This immensely increased the popularity of the machines and Elias offered to join Amasa by building a large factory at Bridgeport, Connecticut, to fill the increasing demand for more machines. The machines produced at Bridgeport, however, although imitating the Amasa Howe machines, proved inferior in quality. Amasa found that, rather than helping his business reputation, his brother’s efforts were hurting him and he severed business relations with Elias.
Because of their brief association, the 1862 prize medal awarded to A. B. Howe was sometimes credited to Elias. The latter did receive awards for his patent, but never for his manufactured machines.
When the two brothers dissolved their joint venture, Elias attempted to call his new company the Howe Sewing Machine Co., but Amasa’s claim that this name had been his exclusive property for many years was upheld by the courts. Elias then omitted the word “Sewing” and called his company simply the Howe Machine Co..
In 1863 Nahum Salamon, their manager in London, wrote a history of the sewing machine including a biography of Elias Howe, to promote sales of the "Genuine Howe Machines" made by the Howe S.M.Co. (ismacs.net)
In about 1873, Benjamin Porter Howe, Amasa’s son, sold the Howe Sewing Machine Co. to the Stockwell brothers and the production of "Genuine Howe Machines" stopped. It is thought that about 100.000 machines in total were produced.
The Howe Machine Co. continued to manufacture Howe machines until 1886.
by Martin Gregory
Thus, he was no stranger to the sewing machine, in 1854 Amasa set up the Howe Sewing Machine Company (Howe S.M.Co) in New York and started to manufacture sewing machines. He paid Elias and the Patent Combination the appropriate royalty and initially production was on a very modest scale: 60 machines in 1854, 53 machines in 1855.
The machine which Amasa produced is recognisable as the "Howe" sewing machine and is the prototype for the "Howe system" machines which were widely cloned in the 1870s. I do not know what contribution, if any, Elias made to the design of the machine. He had no interest in the company.
The patents relating to it which I have come across are in the name of A.B. Howe and not Elias Howe. Production increased very slowly and by 1860 only about 1500 machines had been produced. The photograph of an A.B.Howe machine of 1860 in Grace Rogers Cooper's book (p 93) is of a classic "Howe" machine.
The Amasa Howe machines were good well-made sewing machines and after 1860 production increased. The Howe S.M.Co. expanded into Europe with agents in London and Paris.
The London agent from 1860 was Luke McKernan who sold "Howe's sewing machines" at 142 High Holborn and later at 98 Cheapside. In June 1861 the Howe S.M.Co opened its own depot nearby at 8 Ludgate St., St. Paul's with Nahum Salamon as manager. McKernan was clearly upset by the loss of trade and in December 1861 the Howe S.M.Co took McKernan to the High Court for an injunction to restrain him.
It appeared that McKernan's shop window carried the words 'LUKE McKERNAN, late AGENT FOR THE HOWE SEWING MACHINE' in very large letters except for the word 'late'. The Howe S.M.Co was granted its injunction!
Amas Bemis Howe took out patents in England (patent GB 1.987 of 9th August 1861 and patent GB 2.086 of 21st August 1861) for improvements to his classic "Howe" machine.
The machines were exhibited on their own stand at the London Exhibition of 1862 where Amasa Howe (not Elias Howe) was awarded a prize medal for the Howe S.M.Co machines and four medals for the excellence of work carried out on them. In 1863 Nahum Salamon, their manager in London, wrote a history of the sewing machine including a biography of Elias Howe, to promote sales of the "Genuine Howe Machines" made by the Howe S.M.Co.
They were advertised as 'Established 1845, perfected 1862'. It is in this booklet that we see the well-known advertisement for "Genuine Howe sewing machines" with four machines labelled A, B, C and D.
With the Howe S.M.Co machine of 1862 becoming more successful and being made in larger numbers, Elias, who was by then very wealthy, offered to go into partnership with Amasa.
Their collaboration was short lived and Elias soon left to start another "Howe" company with his sons in law, the Stockwell Brothers. Since Amasa Howe had used the Company name Howe Sewing Machine Company for many years, the new company called itself the Howe Machine Company (Howe M.Co). The Howe S.M.Co continued to build its machines in New York whilst the Howe M.Co set up a large new factory in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
The Howe S.M.Co continued to develop its machine with A.B. Howe patenting further improvements in 1866 and his son, Benjamin Porter Howe, patenting improvements in 1868, 1869 and 1871. (These are English patents. I presume there are equivalent US patents a month or so earlier but I have no detailed list of these). In England the company also sold the 'Swiftsure' and 'Little Howe' hand machines and a curious rotary hook version of the 'Swiftsure' for which the patent was granted to James Starley. I do not know where these machines were made. They are quite unlike the classic "Howe" machine.
Production by the Howe S.M.Co rose slowly and only reached 20.000 per year in 1871. In 1873 Benjamin Porter Howe sold the Howe S.M.Co to the Howe M.Co and the production of "Genuine Howe Machines" stopped. It is thought that about 100.000 machines in total were produced.
***
The Howe Machine Company was on a much larger scale. Its basic machine was a very close copy of the Amasa Howe machine of the day.
The differences; the fluted wheel top tension in place of a spring strip, the shuttle driven from the heel and the presser-foot lifter were the subject of patents by Elias Howe in 1866 (English patents GB 1.798 and GB 2.630). They were Elias Howe patents ascribed to the Howe M.Co.
Elias died a year later in 1867. After his death the Howe Machine Company was continued by the Stockwell brothers who put a brass medallion featuring a portrait of Elias on their machines.
Production rose rapidly, overtaking that of the Howe S.M.Co by 1868 and reaching half a million in total by the time the Howe M.Co bought the Howe S.M.Co in 1873. Well over one million machines had been produced by the time the company closed in 1886.
The Howe M.Co, copying the Singer Company, set up a manufacturing plant in Avenue Street, Bridgeton, Glasgow in 1873. Amongst the machines it produced for the English market was a hand machine version of the treadle Stockwell Brothers machine, complete with brass medallion.
It is the Stockwell Brothers machine with its brass medallion that most modern collectors think of as the "Howe" machine.
Just as the Wheeler & Wilson curved- needle machine and the Singer 'New Family' machine were cloned in Europe as the 'Wheeler & Wilson system' and the 'Singer system', so the 'Howe system' machine was copied extensively.
Grover & Baker made lock-stitch machines in addition to its patented two-thread chain-stitch machines. The Grover & Baker lock-stitch machine was a close relative of the 'Howe system' and was also copied by German manufacturers.
In England, Bradbury of Oldham had its 'Letter A' and 'Letter B' Howe machines as did Jones of Guide Bridge. Even small manufacturers like Owen Robinson of Kettering produced a 'Howe system' copy. Numerous German manufacturers produced 'Howe system' copies well into the 1880s. The 'Howe system' became one of the three popular layouts for sewing machines from the early days.
It was, however, the first to disappear as real mass production of better machines took hold.
AMASA BRITISH PATENTS
*********************************************************
GB 1.987 Alfred Vincent Newton
of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the county of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, for an invention of Improved machine for sewing. A communication to him from abroad by Amasa Howe, of New York, in the United States of America.
August 9, 1861
*********************************************************
GB 1.922 William Edward Newton
of the Office for Patents, 56, Chancery Lane, in the county of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, for an invention of Improved machinery for cleaning rice, coffee and other grains or seeds. A communication to him from abroad by Amasa Howe, of New York, in the United States of America.
August 2, 1861
*********************************************************
GB 2.086 Nahum Salamon
of 8, Ludgate Street, in the cit of Landon, Machine Factor, for the invention of Attachments or apparatus for sewing machines. A communication to him from abroad by Amasa B. Howe, of New York.
August 21, 1861
*********************************************************
GB 1874 Nahum Salamon
of Ludgate Hill, in the City of London, Agent, for an invention for an improvement in sewing machinery. A communication to him from abroad by Amasa Bemis Howe, of the City of New York, United States of America.
Letters Patent sealed. July 18, 1866
*********************************************************
GB 2.855 William Edward Newton
of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the county of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, for improvements in sewing machines. A communication to him from abroad by Benjamin Porter Howe, of the city and State of New York, United States of America.
Recorded in the Office of the Commissioners.
October 1, 1869
*********************************************************
As reproduction of Historical artifacts, this works may contain errors of spelling and/or missing words and/or missing pages, poor pictures, etc.