#Durez Plastic & Chemicals

[hagleyvault]

On this day, September 10, in 1846, the Massachusetts machinist and inventor  Elias Howe, Jr. (1819-1867) was awarded U.S. Patent 4,750, the first United States patent for a sewing machine using a lockstitch design.

Others had proposed and even manufactured designs for mechanical sewing apparatus, beginning with a German immigrant to London, Charles Weisenthal, who, in 1755, patented a needle to be used in such a machine, though he proposed no machine with which to pair it. Others would soon follow, though their machines similarly were incomplete or suffered design faults that prevented them from working well enough to be put to practical use.

The French inventor Barthélemy Thimonnier invented a machine that was patented by the French government in 1830, and within ten years was operating a factory with 80 machines sewing uniforms for the French army. But Thimonnier’s factory was destroyed by Parisian tailors who feared that his machines would put them out of work. Despite repeated efforts and new patents for improvements to his machine in 1841, 1845, and 1847, which received prizes and acclaim when exhibited at the 1855 World Fair in Paris, Thimonnier’s invention was a commercial failure, and he died a poor man in 1857.

Howe’s invention almost met the same fate, as he struggled to find financial backers to assist in the production of his machine. As he persevered with little luck in turning his invention into a commercial product, other more financially savvy entrepreneurs began manufacturing machines using his design. Most famously, Howe was forced to pursue a court case against Isaac Singer and Walter Hunt from 1849 to 1854, as the two men had begun selling a machine based on his patent. Howe eventually won the dispute. Much of the settlement and royalties he earned as a result went toward providing equipment for the 17th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry of the Union Army during the Civil War, a unit in which he also served as a private. But the funds also allowed him to establish The Howe Machine Co. in Bridgeport, Connecticut around 1866. Both Elias Howe Jr. and Isaac Singer died wealthy men.

The sewing machine in this July, 1943 advertisement was created nearly 100 years after Howe’s patent was granted. Industrial designer Peter Muller Munk’s (1907–1967) contribution to the design was the replacement of the traditional metal sewing machine shell with Durez plastic, which he proposed would not only reduce the weight of the machine, but would also offer options for color finishes that would appeal to consumers.

The item is part of the Hagley Library’s John Okolowicz collection of publications and advertising on radio and consumer electronics (Accession 2014.277). To view it online, alongside other material from this collection, click here to visit its page in our Digital Archive.