.. rich.  He went back to acting and had 24 children by 4 wives – 3 of them at the same time.  He divorced his 1st wife, but the 2nd wife took him to court for bigamy.  The court did not penalize him, but his reputation was gone, so he …

.. He was first an actor, who invented a rock drilling machine.  He improved on it to be able to carve wood and metal, and accidentally came upon the world of sewing machines when he went marketing to stores which sold small precision machines. The store sold Lerocut and Blodgett …

… Howe, Singer, Wheeler & Wilson, Grover & Baker to name just a few, but by 1900 the Singer company held 90% of the world share due to shrewd marketing, multiple franchise shop placements (a new business concept), and continued development of a quality machine. (Ad: The 1900 Singer Sewing …

.. so very successful, that Singer, required to pay Royalties to Howe for the patent, ended up paying enough money that Howe was able to finance a whole Union regiment in the Civil War. (Picture: Live demonstrations of the new models were the marketing method of the choice in the …

…  machine concept to make the machine scaled for home use, and to make the needle go up and down instead of back and forth. Patent wars followed between Singer and Howe among others.  Singer prevailed and got the rights to the patent until 1854 when Howe took it back …

.. which took 5 years in development.  Howe, from Massachusetts originally, was an educated and specifically trained (post “high school”) machinist who worked for a company that made and repaired precision instruments.  He heard about the sewing machine as they were repairing some of the early types, and decided he …

.. stole the Howe and Hunt ideas and continued to build upon them and improved the concept.  Early machines like Howe’s moved back and forth to sew. It was Isaac Singer who made the big step for home sewing by inventing the up and down mechanism we know today. (Photo:  …

.. Walter Hunt made one in 1834 that built on the successes of those who came before him, and it didn’t have to do a chain stitch, but could sew a straight line.  The problem was he never patented it because he was afraid American tailors would try to kill …

… was the first success at building a functional and lightweight model that could be used in homes and light industry!  Built by French tailor Bartholemy Thimonnier, it had a hooked needle like one uses to crochet now, and could make an embroidery-like chain stitch. The problem was, other tailors …

… eras switched from “early” to “mid”, continued with the 1818 John Adams model.. and the same thing being developed by Doge and John Knowles – which all completely failed. (Photo: an early model industrial machine for punching leather)