Elias Howe received a patent on September 10, 1846. It was for a sewing machine. It wasn’t the first sewing machine, and not even the first sewing machine patent (although it was the first of those in the US), but it did have an important innovation.
Sewing needles have a hole (or an “eye”) on the end farthest from the point; that’s where the thread goes. Since sewing machines use needles (because everybody knows that’s how sewing works), those needles also had eyes in the non-point end (because everyone knew that’s how sewing needles work). Howe knew that too — and struggled for weeks to figure out how to get his sewing machine to create stitches. The story goes that the solution — putting the eye in the point of the needle — came to him in a dream. He woke up at 4am, rushed to his workshop, and by 9am had a prototype of his new needle.
So why can’t you buy a Howe-brand sewing machine? It’s because although Howe did start a manufacturing company, he found it much more lucrative to let other companies — like the one started by Isaac Singer — build the machines and pay him royalties. He had to take Singer to court first, though, and prove that Singer had copied the patented mechanism Howe had invented.
The sewing machine wasn’t the only significant patent awarded in 1848; Aldolphe Sax got one for his saxophone. The instrument got popular pretty quickly, and it didn’t take long before it was a common part of bands. By 1932 you’d be surprised NOT to see a saxophone in a band like the one that played at the September 10 opening ceremony of the Independent Subway System (the IND) in New York City. New York already had two subway systems, but there was room for the IND as well — unlike the IRT and BMT, which were privately owned, the IND was owned and operated by the city itself. That worked so well that the city bought both the IRT and the BMT in 1940 and unified them into the “New York City Subway.”
In 1965 you might have taken the subway on your way to see the new Beatles film “Help!” — you’d almost certainly be wearing clothes made with sewing machines, and they’d probably have zippers — which Howe also patented, although he never marketed. And if you paid close attention, you would have noticed that “Help!” was dedicated to the memory of none other than Elias Howe.
