22 Facts About Elias Howe

Elias Howe married Elizabeth Jennings Ames, daughter of Simon Ames and Jane B Ames, on March 3,1841, in Cambridge.

Elias Howe was not the first to conceive of the idea of a sewing machine.

Elias Howe's machine contained the three essential features common to most modern machines: a needle with the eye at the point, a shuttle operating beneath the cloth to form the lock stitch, and an automatic feed.

Elias Howe almost beggared himself before he discovered where the eye of the needle of the sewing machine should be located.

Elias Howe thought the king gave him twenty-four hours in which to complete the machine and make it sew.

Elias Howe worked and worked, and puzzled, and finally gave it up.

Elias Howe noticed that the warriors carried spears that were pierced near the head.

Elias Howe jumped out of bed, ran to his workshop, and by 9, a needle with an eye at the point had been crudely modeled.

Elias and his family joined Amasa in London in 1848, but after business disputes with Thomas and failing health of his wife, Howe returned nearly penniless to the United States.

Elias Howe was forced to defend his patent in a court case that lasted from 1849 to 1854 because he found that Isaac Singer with cooperation from Walter Hunt had perfected a facsimile of his machine and was selling it with the same lockstitch that Elias Howe had invented and patented.

Elias Howe won the dispute and earned considerable royalties from Singer and others for sales of his invention.

Howe contributed much of the money he earned to providing equipment for the 17th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry of the Union Army during the Civil War, in which Howe served as a private in Company D Due to his faltering health he performed light duty, often seen walking with the aid of his shillelagh, and took on the position of Regimental Postmaster, serving out his time riding to and from Baltimore with war news.

Elias Howe received a patent in 1851 for an "Automatic, Continuous Clothing Closure".

Between 1865 and 1867, Elias himself established The Howe Machine Co.

Elias Howe's sewing machine won a gold medal at the Paris Exhibition of 1867, and that same year he was awarded the Legion d'honneur by Napoleon III for his invention.

In 1873, Benjamin P Howe sold the Howe Sewing Machine Co.

Elias Howe died at age 48, on October 3,1867, of gout and a massive blood clot.

Elias Howe was buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.

Elias Howe's father died 2 months later in December 28,1867,1 day after his 75th birthday.

Elias Howe was commemorated with a 5-cent stamp in the Famous American Inventors series issued October 14,1940.

Elias Howe was a descendant of John Elias Howe who arrived in Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630 from Brinklow, Warwickshire, England, and settled in Sudbury, Massachusetts.

Elias Howe was a descendant of Edmund Rice, another early immigrant to Massachusetts Bay Colony.