One of the more interesting of the patents, however, 

 was for the box or sewing case for which Grover 

 was issued U.S. patent No. 14,956 on May 27, 1856. 

 The inventor stated "that when open the box shall 

 constitute the bed for the machine to be operated 

 upon, and hanging the machine thereto to facilitate 

 oiling, cleansing, and repairs without removing 

 it from the box." It was the first portable sewing 

 machine (fig. 36). 



Though the Grover and Baker company manu- 

 factured machines using a shuttle and producing 

 the more common lockstitch, both under royalty in 

 their own name and also for other smaller companies, 

 Potter was convinced that the Grover and Baker 

 stitch was the one that eventually would be used in 

 both family and commercial machines. He, as 

 president, directed the efforts of the company to 

 that end. When the basic patents held by the 

 "Sewing-Machine Combination" (discussed on pp. 

 41-42) began to run out in the mid- 1870s, dis- 

 solving its purpose and lowering the selling price of 

 sewing machines, the Grover and Baker company- 

 began a systematic curtailing of expenses and closing 

 of branch offices. All the patents held by the company 



and the business itself were sold to another company. 63 

 But the members of the Grover and Baker company 

 fared well financially by the strategic move. 



The Grover and Baker machine and its unique 

 stitch did not have a great influence on the overall 

 development of the mechanics of machine sewing. 

 The merits of a double-looped stitch — its elasticity 

 and the taking of both threads from commercial 

 spools — were outweighed by the bulkiness of the 

 seam and its consumption of three times as much 

 thread as the lockstitch required. Machines making 

 a similar type of stitch have continued in limited 

 use in the manufacture of knit goods and other 

 products requiring an elastic seam. But, more im- 

 portantly, Grover and Baker's astute Orlando B. 

 Potter placed their names in the annals of sewing- 

 machine history by his work in forming the "Combi- 

 nation," believed to be the first "trust" of any 

 prominence. 



63 Domestic Sewing Machine Company. See Union Special 

 Saving Machine Co. Sales Bulletin, vol. 3, ch. 15, pp. 58-59. 



38 



