Patent Models: Textile and Sewing Machines - Introduction
For much of the nineteenth century, inventors submitted a model with their patent application to the United States Patent Office. The National Museum of American History’s patent model collection began with the acquisition of 284 models from the Patent Office in June 1908, and reached more than 1,000 models by the end of that summer. In 1926, Congress decided to dispense with the stored collection of models and gave the Smithsonian Institution the opportunity to collect any models it wanted. Today, the Museum’s collection exceeds 10,000 patent models dating from 1836 to 1910.
The Museum’s Textile Collection contains over four thousand patent models. The collection includes many examples of carding machines, spinning machines, knitting machines, rope making machines, looms, baskets, carpets, fabrics, and sewing machines. Even the simple clothespin is well represented, with 41 patent models.
This sampling of patent models from the Textile Collection describes the two major groupings, textile machinery and sewing machines. In both groups, the examination of the models begins with the earliest of the inventions. In this early group of patent models, the textile machinery models date from 1837 to 1840, and the sewing machine models from 1842 to 1854.
For more information about the Museum’s patent model collection, see Patent Model Index, Guide to the Collections of the National Museum of American History.
"Patent Models: Textile and Sewing Machines - Introduction" showing 41 items.
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1838 Sibley's Patent Model of a Calico Printing Machine
- Description
- Calico Printing Machine Patent Model
- Patent No. 823, issued on July 9, 1838
- Alden Sibley of Pawtucket, Massachusetts
- Sibley’s improvement concerned the arrangement of the color box, which held the coloring matter used in printing; the furnishing roll, which supplied the coloring matter to the printing roll; and the doctor, which acted as a scraper to remove any superfluous color from the cylinder. In his patent specification, Sibley stated that the advantage of his machine was “being able to work as heavy an Engraving, last as first, or second, and by which means you can place the Light, delicate colors, first and Black or Chocolate last or as you please.” His patent model shows only one engraved copper roller although the machine was designed to do three- or four-color work with multiple rollers.
- Sibley recommended using flour instead of gum to thicken the coloring matter. He calculated that to print 175 pieces, it was necessary to use 42 pounds of gum senegal at 22 cents a pound, which added up to $9.24; whereas 42 pounds of flour cost only 5 cents a pound, for a sum of $2.10. That totaled up to a savings of $7.14 if the flour was used. Whether the use of flour was ever adopted is not known.
- By 1836, textile mills in the United States had printed 120 million yards of calicoes. Calico printing was popular among manufacturers largely due to the fact that the printing only added one step to the finishing process and did not affect or complicate the weaving process.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- model constructed
- before 1838-07-09
- patent date
- 1838-07-09
- inventor
- Sibley, Alden
- ID Number
- TE*T11398.012
- catalog number
- T11398.012
- patent number
- 823
- accession number
- 89797
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1837 Crompton's Patent Model of a Power Loom
- Description
- Fancy Power Loom Patent Model
- Patent No. 491, issued November 25, 1837
- William Crompton of Taunton, Massachusetts
- Before William Crompton’s 1837 patent for a fancy power loom was adopted, the harnesses of power looms were controlled by cams. This arrangement limited the number of harnesses that could be utilized, which in turn limited the complexity of patterns that could be woven. To vary a pattern, the cams had to be laboriously changed. Crompton’s invention solved both of these problems. In his patent, an endless pattern chain was used, upon which rollers or pins could be variously placed to engage the harness levers (as had the cams) but which allowed any number of harnesses to be used and easily permitted the changing of patterns. More elaborate designs now could be easily woven on power looms.
- Crompton was born in the textile mill town of Preston, England, in 1806. He was taught how to weave on a cotton hand loom and learned the trade of a machinist. Crompton came to Taunton, Massachusetts, at the age of 30, and was employed by Crocker and Richmond. At this textile mill he designed a loom to weave a new, more complex patterned fabric. The mill failed in 1837 and Crompton went back to England. He entered into cotton manufacture with John Rostran, and took out a British patent for his loom under Rostran’s name.
- Crompton emigrated with his family in 1839 back to the United States to promote his looms. The Middlesex Mills in Lowell, Massachusetts, invited him to alter his fancy cotton loom for the weaving of woolen fabrics, which he accomplished in 1840. It was considered an important landmark for the woolen industry. In his book, American Textile Machinery, John Hayes quotes the Committee on Patents of the United States House of Representatives, 1878: “ . . . upon the Crompton loom or looms based on it, are woven every yard of fancy cloth in the world.”
- In 1849, William’s health declined and his son, George, carried on the business. Like his father, George was an inventor and patented many improvements for the loom. After 1859, the Crompton Loom Work became one of the largest fancy loom manufacturers in the United States.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- model constructed
- before 1837-11-25
- patent date
- 1837-11-25
- inventor
- Crompton, William
- ID Number
- TE*T11411.001
- accession number
- 89797
- catalog number
- T11411.001
- patent number
- 491
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1851 Singer's Sewing Machine Patent Model
- Description
- Sewing Machine Patent Model
- Patent No. 8,294, issued August 12, 1851
- Isaac Merritt Singer of New York, New York
- The eighth child of poor German immigrants, Isaac was born on October 27, 1811, in Pittstown, New York. As a young man he worked as a mechanic and cabinetmaker. For a time he was an actor, and formed his own theatrical troupe, “The Merritt Players.” Needing a steadier income, Singer worked for a plant in Fredericksburg, Ohio, that manufactured wooden type for printers. Seeing the need for a better type-carving machine, he invented an improved one.
- In June 1850, Singer and a partner took the machine to Boston looking for financial support. He rented display space in the workshop of Orson C. Phelps. Here Singer became intrigued with the sewing machine that Phelps was building for John A. Lerow and Sherburne C. Blodgett. Analyzing the flaws of the Lerow and Blodgett sewing machine, Singer devised a machine that used a shuttle that moved in a straight path, rather than theirs, which moved around in a complete circle. He visualized replacing their curved horizontal needle with a straight, vertically moving needle. Phelps approved of Singer’s ideas and Isaac worked on perfecting his machine.
- For his first patent model, Isaac Singer submitted a commercial sewing machine. He was granted Patent No. 8,294, on August 12, 1851. These commercial sewing machines were built in Orson C. Phelps’s machine shop in Boston. The head, base cams, and gear wheels of the machine were made of cast iron; to fit together, these parts had to be filed and ground by hand. The machine made a lockstitch by using a straight, eye-pointed needle and a reciprocating shuttle. The specific patent claims allowed were for: 1) the additional forward motion of the shuttle to tighten the stitch; 2) the use of a friction pad to control the tension of the thread from the spool; and 3) placing the spool of thread on an adjustable arm to permit thread to be used as needed.
- Always the showman, Singer relished exhibiting his invention at social gatherings and was masterful in convincing the women present that the sewing machine was a tool they could learn to use. The machine was transported in its packing crate, which served as a stand; it contained a wooden treadle that allowed the seamstress to power the machine with her feet, leaving both hands free to guide the cloth. This early, heavy-duty Singer machine was designed for use in the manufacturing trades rather than in the home.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- model constructed
- before 1851-08-12
- patent date
- 1851-08-12
- inventor
- Singer, Isaac M.
- ID Number
- TE*T06054
- accession number
- 48865
- catalog number
- T06054.000
- patent number
- 008294
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1851 Grover and Baker's Patent Model of a Sewing Machine
- Description
- Sewing Machine Patent Model
- Patent No. 7,931, issued on February 11, 1851
- William O. Grover and William E. Baker of Roxbury, Massachusetts
- William O. Grover, a tailor working in Boston, believed that the sewing machine would transform the clothing industry. Seeing that the available sewing machines were not very practical, he began in 1849 to devise a different machine. He developed a new stitch that was made by interlocking two threads in a series of slipknots. Another Boston tailor, William E. Baker, shared Grover’s vision and became his partner in the project.
- They received Patent No. 7,931 on February 11, 1851, for a double chain stitch made with two threads. The stitch was made using a vertical eye-pointed needle for the top thread and a horizontal needle for the under thread.
- The Grover and Baker Sewing Machine Company was organized in 1851. Jacob Weatherill, mechanic, and Orlando B. Potter, lawyer, joined the firm. It was Potter who saw that the numerous lawsuits over patent rights were strangling the growth of the fledging sewing machine industry. In 1856, his work lead to the formation of the Sewing Machine Combination also called the Sewing Machine Trust. This organization consisted of three sewing machine manufacturers, I. M. Singer Co., Wheeler & Wilson Co., and the Grover & Baker Co., and the inventor, Elias Howe Jr., who all agreed to pool their important patents and stop patent litigation between them. This allowed them to move ahead with manufacturing and marketing of their own sewing machines and collecting license fees from other companies wanting to use their patents.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- model constructed
- before 1851-02-11
- patent date
- 1851-02-11
- inventor
- Grover, William O.
- Baker, William E.
- ID Number
- TE*T06053
- catalog number
- T06053.000
- patent number
- 007931
- accession number
- 48865
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1849 Bachelder's Patent Model of a Sewing Machine
- Description
- Sewing Machine Patent Model
- Patent No. 6439, issued May 8, 1849
- John Bachelder of Boston, Massachusetts
- John Bachelder of Boston, Massachusetts, submitted this sewing machine patent model for his Patent No. 6439, which was granted on May 8, 1849. Bachelder’s machine sewed with a chain-stitch. He did not claim this chain-stitch mechanism as it was patented earlier in February in 1849 by Charles Morey and Joseph B. Johnson of Massachusetts. Instead he focused on improving the cloth feed. On this model, Bachelder used a wide continuous leather belt inserted with sharp pins to hold the cloth and enable the leather belt to move the cloth forward as it was being sewn. After being stitched, the fabric would be disengaged from the points by a curved piece of metal. This was the first patent for a continuous sewing, intermittent feeding mechanism.
- Although Bachelder did not manufacture his sewing machine, his patent and later reissues of it were bought by I. M. Singer, and became one of the central patents to form the Sewing Machine Combination in 1856. This organization consisted of three sewing machine manufacturers, I. M. Singer Co., Wheeler & Wilson Co., and the Grover & Baker Co., and the inventor, Elias Howe Jr., who all agreed to pool their important patents and stop patent litigations between them. This allowed them to move ahead with manufacturing and marketing of their own sewing machine and collect license fees from other companies wanting to use their patents.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- model constructed
- before 1849-05-08
- patent date
- 1849-05-08
- inventor
- Bachelder, John
- ID Number
- TE*T06051
- catalog number
- T06051.000
- patent number
- 006439
- accession number
- 89797
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1842 Greenough's Patent Model of a Sewing Machine
- Description
- Sewing Machine Patent Model
- Patent No. 2,466, issued February 21, 1842
- John James Greenough of Washington, D.C.
- In 1842, John Greenough received the first American patent for a sewing machine. Greenough’s patent model used a needle with two points and an eye in the middle. To make a stitch, the needle would completely pass through the material by means of a pair of pinchers on either side of the seam. The pinchers traveled on a rack and opened and closed automatically. The needle was threaded with a length of thread, and required constant rethreading.
- This type of sewing was classified as a short-thread machine. The machine was designed for sewing leather, and an awl preceded the needle to pierce a hole. The leather was held between clamps on a rack that could be moved, to produce a back stitch, or forward to make a shoemaker’s stitch. The material was fed automatically at a selected rate, according to the length of stitch desired. A weight drew out the thread, and a stop-motion shut down the machinery when a thread broke or became too short. Feed was continuous for the length of the rack-bar, and then it had to be set back. The turn of a crank set all motions to work. Greenough did not commercially manufacture his invention and his patent model remains as the only evidence.
- He held several profitable patents for shoe-pegging machinery. He had many interests and his other patents included ones for plate glass; lampshades; looms; firearms; meters; propellers; gearing; hinges; power-transmitters; car steps; and a paper bag-making machine.
- Greenough worked at the Patent Office from 1837 to 1841, supervising draftsmen who were restoring the patent drawings lost in the disastrous 1836 fire. Later he became an attorney working mostly on patent cases, and established a patent agency in New York City. In 1853, he was one of the founders of the American Polytechnic Journal, which published engravings of recent patents.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- model constructed
- before 1842-02-21
- patent date
- 1842-02-21
- inventor
- Greenough, John J.
- ID Number
- TE*T06048
- catalog number
- T06048.000
- patent number
- 002466
- accession number
- 48865
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1843 Bean's Patent Model of a Sewing Machine
- Description
- Sewing Machine Patent Model
- Patent No. 2,982 issued March 4, 1843
- Benjamin W. Bean of New York, New York
- The second American patent (Patent No. 2,982) for a sewing machine was granted to Benjamin W. Bean on March 4, 1843. Bean’s machine made a running stitch by feeding the fabric between the teeth of a series of gears and onto a threaded bent needle. Turning the crank-handle from left to right moves the gearing in a similar motion to a crimping machine. The stationary crooked needle lays in a groove in the gears, with a point at one end and an eye at the other. A wooden screw clamp secures the machine to the worktable.
- This invention was similar to Greenough’s in making a running stitch, but the approach was different. Bean’s method, like Greenough’s, was yet another attempt to emulate hand sewing. Although Bean’s running stitch machine had little commercial success, small inexpensive machines were later sold in the 1860s for household use based on this principle. It remained for Elias Howe, three years later, to patent a sewing machine using a lockstitch that functioned differently from the movements of hand sewing.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- model constructed
- before 1843-03-04
- patent date
- 1843-03-04
- inventor
- Bean, Benjamin W.
- ID Number
- TE*T06049
- catalog number
- T06049.000
- patent number
- 002982
- accession number
- 48865
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1850 Wilson's Patent Model of a Sewing Machine
- Description
- Sewing Machine Patent Model
- Patent No. 7776, issued November 12, 1850
- Allen Benjamin Wilson of Pittsfield, Massachusetts
- Allen B. Wilson was one of the most creative and innovative of the early inventors. Born in Willett, New York, in 1824, he was apprenticed at age sixteen as a cabinetmaker. Later in 1847, he moved to Adrian, Michigan, and worked as a journeyman cabinetmaker. It was here, far removed from New England and the efforts by other inventors, that he began to design a different sewing machine. After recovering from an illness, he moved back east to Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and began to perfect his new concept for a sewing machine.
- In 1850, Wilson developed a prototype for a reciprocating-shuttle machine. When the needle went through the cloth, it formed a loop below the seam. A shuttle that was pointed on both ends held a second thread that was passed through the loop and as the tension on the thread was tightened, a lockstitch was made. This shuttle could be moved both forward and backwards to form a stitch on both movements, unlike the shuttles of Hunt and Howe, which only created a stitch in one direction.
- Based on these same ideas, he made a second machine that he submitted to the U.S. Patent Office and was granted Patent No. 7,776 on November 12, 1850. Presumably, Wilson’s skills as a cabinetmaker came into use with this model as it is almost entirely made out of wood and painted black to look like metal. Constructing a model out of wood, rather than metal, was a less expensive and easier way to build, requiring fewer specialized tools. On the underside of the metal raceway is stamped “Deall & Sons,” evidence that Wilson used a machinist to fabricate this part.
- Fortunately, Wilson met Nathaniel Wheeler, partner of the firm of Warren and Woodruff of Watertown, Connecticut. He moved to Watertown to join in the partnership and to continue to perfect his sewing machine.
- In his second patent (Patent No. 8,296, issued August 12, 1851) Wilson developed the rotary hook and bobbin to replace the shuttle mechanism in his first patent (Patent No. 7776, issued November 12, 1850.) The rotary hook opened the loop of the needle thread, while a reciprocating bobbin carried the second thread through the loop to complete the lockstitch.
- In order to avoid patent litigation that the reciprocating bobbin might have caused, Wilson developed his third unique invention, the stationary bobbin (Patent No. 9,041, issued June 15, 1852.) In Wilson’s rotary hook and stationary bobbin, the lockstitch was made by locking the needle thread with the bobbin thread by passing the needle thread loop under the bobbin. The driving shaft carried the circular rotary hook, which resulted in a revolutionary method of sewing.
- For his patent model, Wilson submitted a commercial Wheeler and Wilson sewing machine that had been manufactured the previous year. The evolution of his ideas from the simple wooden model to the successful manufactured machine beautifully illustrates the progress of his novel inventions.
- In 1853 the Wheeler and Wilson Manufacturing Company was organized to manufacture sewing machines based on Allen Wilson patents. In 1856, the company moved to Bridgeport, Connecticut, and became the largest and most successful manufacturer of sewing machines in the 1850s and 1860s.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- model constructed
- before 1850-11-12
- patent date
- 1850-11-12
- patentee
- Wilson, Allen B.
- inventor
- Wilson, Allen B.
- ID Number
- TE*T06052
- catalog number
- T06052.000
- accession number
- 48865
- patent number
- 007776
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1843 Corliss's Patent Model of a Sewing Machine
- Description
- Sewing Machine Patent Model
- Patent No. 3,389, issued December 27, 1843
- George Henry Corliss of Greenwich, New York
- In 1825, George Corliss’s physician father moved the family to Greenwich, New York, where George, then 8, grew up. The son spent several years as a young man clerking in a country store and in 1838 opened his own country store in Greenwich. While running the store, George received complaints about the stitching of leather boots from a customer. Since all stitching was done by hand, George wondered why a machine had not been invented that would stitch stronger seams.
- He analyzed the saddler’s stitch, which was commonly used to stitch boot seams, and developed the concepts of the mechanisms that would be necessary to reproduce the stitch with a machine. By 1843, he had developed such a machine and received Patent Number 3,389. In his patent specification, he described the operation of the “Sewing Engine” as follows: “Like the common process of sewing by hand, it is provided in this machine that the article under operation be perforated for each stitch, and that the perforation be filled with a thread passed through it from each side. The instruments by which this is affected repeat their operations always at the same point. The article to be sewed is therefore moved at each stitch.” Knight’s Mechanical Dictionary of 1881 indicated that the machine was similar in operation to the Greenough patented in 1842 in the use of the running stitch. In his patent claims, Corliss noted the rectilinear and lateral movements of the awls; the movements of the needles; the combination of levers; the method of forming stitches; and the mechanism that prevents the entanglement of threads.
- Hoping to promote his sewing machine patent, George moved his family to Providence, Rhode Island, in 1844 to gain financial backing and machine shop experience. Associating himself in business with John Barstow and Edwin J. Nightingale to develop and manufacture steam engines, Corliss received many patents relating to steam engines and their associated components. His interest in sewing machines was overtaken by his pursuit of improvements to steam engines, for which he became famous.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- model constructed
- before 1843-12-27
- patent date
- 1843-12-27
- inventor
- Corliss, George H.
- ID Number
- TE*T06110
- catalog number
- T06110.000
- patent number
- 003389
- accession number
- 89797
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1837 Golding's Patent Model of a Spinning Doubling and Twisting Silk Machine
- Description
- Doubling and Twisting Thread Machine Patent Model
- Patent No. 352, issued August 15, 1837
- John Golding, Dedham, Massachusetts
- In his patent specification, Golding noted that the frame of the doubling and twisting machine was to be constructed like any of the “modern” frames. It would have gears, and an eccentric, or heart, motion to guide the thread on the spool. His patent claim concerned the arrangement of the machinery that prevented wasting the thread if it broke. This was accomplished by stopping the spindle and raising the feeding-down roller.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- model constructed
- before 1837-08-15
- patent date
- 1837-08-15
- inventor
- Golding, John
- ID Number
- TE*T11416.064
- catalog number
- T11416.064
- accession number
- 89797
- patent number
- 352
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center