CHAPTER XVII.

ELIAS HOWE, JR.

The first sewing-machine--Birth of Elias Howe--A poor man's son--Raised
to hard work--His first employment--The little mill-boy--Delicate
health--Goes to Lowell to seek his fortune--Thrown out of
employment--Removes to Cambridge--Works in a machine shop with N.P.
Banks--Marries--A rash step--Growing troubles--A hard lot--Conceives the
idea of a sewing-machine--His first experiments unsuccessful--Invents
the lock stitch and perfects the sewing-machine--Hindered by his
poverty--A hard struggle--Finds a partner--His winter's task--His attic
work-shop--Completion of the model--Perfection of Howe's
invention--Efforts to dispose of the invention--Disappointed
hopes--Popular incredulity--Becomes an engine driver--Amasa Howe goes to
England with the sewing-machine--Bargain with the London
merchant--Elias removes to London--Loses his situation--The rigors of
poverty--Returns to America--Death of his wife--Fate's last blow--The
sewing-machine becomes better known--Adoption by the public--A tardy
recognition--Elias Howe sets up in business for himself--Buys out his
partner's interest--The sewing-machine war--Rapid growth of the
sewing-machine interest--Earnings of the inventor--A royal
income--Honors conferred upon him--Enlists in the United States Army--A
liberal private--Last illness and death.


CHAPTER XVIII.

RICHARD M. HOE.