the wrong side thread, or, as it has been termed, the auxiliary thread-being supplied by a shuttle and bobbin. The needle is secured to a stock, whose movement, caused by arms and levers, drives its point through the material to be sewed; the eye of the needle, at a moderate distance from the point, carries the thread through and then retires leaving a loop, through which loop a shuttle is passed, on the under side of the material to be sewed; this shuttle carries a quantity of thread upon a spool, which it supplies as the seam progresses. The needle on retiring draws up the loop, and thus closes the seam, which on the upper or face side of the work presents the appearance of what is called a 'row of stitching,' and on the under, a close resemblance, but differing slightly. The return, or rotation of the shuttle in its orbit, is a matter of course, and the work thus goes on continuously and with great rapidity.

The feed, or the progressive movement of the material to be sewed under the needle, is accomplished in various waysprimarily, by means of the friction of a feeding wheel, whose roughened surface creates sufficient adhesion to move the material forward at the requisite intervals. This feed is effected by the ordinary means of a racket-wheel and click, or paul, the latter being capable of adjustment through shifting levers, so as to give a longer or shorter stitch, at the will of the operator, or the requirements of the work.

These devices and arrangements, with such improved modifications as experience. and ingenuity have suggested from time to time, constitute the American sewingmachine.

Although the use of the sewing-machine has become general only within a comparatively recent period, the instrument is, in a certain sense, an old invention. The needle with the eye in the center, and double-pointed, is beautifully employed in the embroidery machine, which is an old French device. This machine worked upon cloth as many as sixty similar figures or flowers at the same time; the whole

being directed by one hand, who, by the aid of a pentagraphic guide on a prepared pattern, pointed the needles to their appropriate place of entrance, and returned them with unerring certainty and exactitude. The earliest form of stitch made use of was the 'chain stitch,' which is still employed for ornamental purposes, but is not approved of where strength and durability are required. The next stitch in order was the 'running stitch,' and was accomplished by means of a needle having an eye in the middle and points at each end; this has been extensively used for the cheaper kinds of work, but does not insure durability. The next form of stitch is that already described, as formed by means of two threads, with a needle and shuttle;-and this opens up the wonderful era of modern sewing-machines, beginning with the introduction to the public of that by Mr. Howe.

It would be impossible to follow Mr. Howe through all the details of his varied experience during his early years. Suffice it to say, that it was at Boston, when in his twentieth year, and after he had learned the rudiments of his trade in one of the machine shops of Lowell, and subsequently in Cambridge, working side by side with Nathaniel P. Banks, that the thought of sewing by machinery was first suggested to his mind. As related by Mr. Parton, in his admirable magazine sketch of Howe, this singularly fortuitous incident happened in this wise:-In the year 1839, two men in Boston, one a mechanic and the other a capitalist, were striving to produce a knitting-machine, which proved to be a task beyond their strength. When the inventor was at his wit's end, his capitalist brought the machine to the shop of Ari Davis, to see if that eccentric genius could suggest the solution of the difficulty, and make the machine work. The shop, resolving itself into a committee of the whole, gathered about the knitting-machine and its proprietor, and were listening to an explanation of its principle, when Davis, in his wild, extravagant way, broke in with the question

"What are you bothering yourselves with a knitting-machine for? Why don't you make a sewing-machine?"

"I wish I could," said the capitalist: "but it can't be done."

"Oh, yes, it can," said Davis; "I can make a sewing-machine myself."

"Well," said the other, "you do it, Davis, and I'll insure you an independent fortune."

Among the workmen who stood by and listened to this conversation-and in this instance at least the old adage concerning listeners appears to have been reversed -says Parton, was Howe; and from that time he was in the habit, in his leisure

and reflection he produced the first machine that ever sewed a seam, and he was soon the wearer of a suit of clothes made by its assistance. This first machine, which is one of great beauty and finish, is still in existence, an object of peculiar interest to the curious who inspect it; and it will sew ten times as fast as a woman can sew by hand. Having patented the machine, and finding the tailors of America averse to its introduction, he went to England, where he succeeded in selling two machines; but found so little encouragement that he would have starved to death but for the aid of friends, and he resolved to return home, or at least to send

his family. So pinched was he, while in London, that he frequently borrowed small sums of his friend, Mr. Inglis-on one occasion a shilling, with which he bought some beans, and cooked and ate them in his own room,and through him also obtained some credit for provisions. Arriving home, after an absence of about two years, he found that the sewing-machine was a conspicuous object of public attention; doubt had been succeeded by admiration of its qualities; and several ingenious men having experimented, had finally improved upon the machine as originally constructed. A war of litigation ensued, and, after several years, Mr. Howe's

by machinery. Having inherited a constitution hardly strong enough for the work of a machinist, and burdened even in his opening manhood with the care of a growing family, his attention was more and more concentrated upon the project of building a machine which would furnish him a livelihood more easily earned. In December, 1845, upon a small capital, provided by the generosity of an old friend, he shut himself up in a garret at Cambridge, and set himself seriously to the task of inventing a sewing machine. After about six months of incessant labor

legally and irreversibly established, the judge deciding that 'there was no evidence which left a shadow of doubt that, for all the benefit conferred upon the public by the introduction of a sewing-machine, the public are indebted to Mr. Howe.' To him, therefore, all other inventors or improvers had to pay tribute. From being a poor man, Howe became, in a few years, one of the most noted millionaires in America; and his bust, executed by Ellis, shows a man of marked personal appearance and striking natural endowments.

But here the very singular circumstances relating to the alleged priority of Mr. Walter Hunt's invention, as described by a graphic and well-informed writer in the New York Galaxy,-showing how precarious, at best, is the basis upon which even the most impartial of legal conclusions are arrived at,-may well be presented, as exhibiting the trials of inventors and public benefactors: It was between the years 1832 and 1834, that Mr. Hunt, in his own workshop in Amos street, New York city, invented, built, and put into full and effective operation a machine for sewing, stitching, and seaming cloth. This first machine was made principally by the inventor's own hands. It was the pioneer sewing-machine of America, and the first really successful one of the world. There had already been a French invention, a tambour machine for ornamenting gloves; but it was of very little general utility. These machines of Walter Hunt all contained the invention of the curved needle with the eye near the point, the shuttle and their combination, and they originated the famous interlocked stitch with two threads. Many samples of cloth were perfectly sewn by these machines, and many of the friends and neighbors of the inventor came to see them work. At length, one G. A. Arrowsmith was so well satisfied with the working of the machines, that he bought them, in 1834, and therewith the right to obtain letters-patent. But no sooner had Arrowsmith got this right, than he became impressed both with the vastness of the undertaking and with the prejudice which any scheme apparently tending to impoverish poor seamstresses would awaken. At the same time he became involved in pecuniary disaster, and for years did nothing with the machine. Fortunately for Mr. Hunt's fame, many persons had seen his machines work, and had seen them sew a good, strong and handsome stitch, and form seams better than hand-sewing. Of these, no less than six directly testified to this fact in a suit afterward brought, and established the fact beyond question that

Walter Hunt invented the first sewingmachine, and that it contained the curved, eye-pointed needle at the end of a vibrat ing arm with a shuttle. The case itself was decided upon another point. These affidavits are still in existence. But this was not all. Fifteen years after he had sold his machines to Arrowsmith, who lost a fortune and a name in not devoting himself to their reproduction, Walter Hunt from memory gave a sworn written description of his first machine in every part, and, to clinch the matter, afterward constructed a machine from that description, which was the counterpart of the machine of 1834, and worked perfectly. Finally, one of the original machines sold to Arrowsmith in 1834, was and is, still preserved, though in a dilapidated condition. Walter Hunt then undertook to make a new sewing-machine, which should be an operative instrument, and should contain all the parts which were preserved of the old machine, with such others as were necessary to present the machine in the same shape that the original one possessed. He did this successfully, and the restored machine, still operative and ready to sew good, strong seams, is yet in existence.

Without drawing further, however, from this curiously interesting chapter in the history of the machine, involving a question of the deepest interest to inventors, it is time to describe the instrument-its parts and peculiar features, and modus operandi,-invented by Mr. Howe, and which transformed him from an obscure and struggling mechanic to one of the foremost manufacturers and millionaires in America Seating ourselves therefore before this wonderful elaboration of artistic genius and skill, as it has come fresh from the hands of the toilsome but at last successful inventor, and witnessing its weird and agile movement while its enthusiastic proprietor essays to sew a seam, we find that two threads are employed, one of which is carried through the cloth by means of a curved needle, the pointed end of which passes through the cloth; the

needle used has the eye that is to receive the thread within a small distance, say an eighth of an inch, of its inner or pointed end, the other or outer end of the needle being held by an arm that vibrates on a pivot or joint pin, the curvature of the needle being such as to correspond with the length of the arm as its radius.

When the thread is carried through the cloth, which may be done to the distance of about three-fourths of an inch, the thread will be stretched above the curved needle, something in the manner of a bowstring, leaving a small open space between the two. A small shuttle, carrying a bobbin filled with silk or thread, is then made to pass entirely through this open space, between the needle and the thread which it carries; and when the shuttle is returned, which is done by means of a picker staff or shuttle-driver, the thread which was carried in by the needle is surrounded by that received from the shuttle; as the needle is drawn out, it forces that which was received from the shuttle into the body of the cloth; and as this operation is repeated, a seam is formed which has on

each side of the cloth the same appearance as that given by stitching, with this peculiarity, that the thread sewn on one side of the cloth is exclusively that which was given out by the needle, and the thread seen on the other side is exclusively that which was given out by the shuttle.

Thus, according to this arrangement, a stitch is made at every back and forth movement of the shuttle. The two thicknesses of cloth that are to be sewed, are held upon pointed wires, which project out from a metallic plate, like the teeth of a comb, but at a considerable distance from each other, say three-fourths of an inch, more or less, these pointed wires sustaining the cloth, and answering the purpose of ordinary basting. The metallic plate from which these wires project has numerous holes through it, which answer the purpose of rack teeth in enabling the plate to move forward, by means of a pinion, as the stitches are taken. The distance to which the said plate is moved, and, consequently, the length of the stitches, may be regulated at pleasure.

One of the most formidable of Mr.