Lots of sewing machine inventors…

.. 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:  Other inventors sold machines in he 1840’s and 1850’s including this Raymond brand that came from a cabinet company)