Figure 1. -After almost a century of attempts to invent a machine that would sew the practical 

 sewing machine evolved in the mid-1 9th century. This elegant, carpeted salesroom of the 1870s, with 

 fashionable ladies and gentlemen scanning the latest model sewing machines, reflects the pinnacle reached 

 by the new industry in just a few decades. This example, one of many of its type, is the Wheeler and Wilson 

 sewing-machine offices and salesroom, No. 44 Fourteenth Street, Union Square, New York City. From 

 The Daily Graphic, New York City, December 29, 1874. (Smithsonian photo 48091 -A.) 



