The "Sewing-Machine Combination" 



With the basic elements of a successful sewing 

 machine assembled, the various manufacturers should 

 have been able to produce good machines unencum- 

 bered. The court order, however, which restrained 

 several firms from, selling Singer machines while the 

 Howe suit was pending, started a landslide; soon 

 Wheeler, Wilson and company, Grover and Baker 

 company, and several others fi4 purchased rights from 

 Elias Howe. This gave Howe almost absolute control 

 of the sewing-machine business as these companies 

 agreed to his royalty terms of $25 for every machine 

 sold. In an attempt to improve his own machine, 

 Howe was almost immediately caught up in another 

 series of legal battles in which he was the defendant; 

 the companies he had defeated were able to accuse 

 him. of infringing on patents that they owned. To 

 compound the confusion, individual companies also 

 were suing each other on various grounds. 



Because of this situation Orlando B. Potter, president 

 of the Grover and Baker company, advanced in 1856 

 the idea of a "Combination" of sewing-machine 

 manufacturers. He pointed out how the various 

 companies were harming themselves by continuing 

 litigation and tried to convince Howe that all would 

 benefit by an agreement of some kind. He proposed 

 that Elias Howe; Wheeler, Wilson and company; 

 I. M. Singer and companv; and Grover and Baker 



company pool their patents covering the essential 

 features of the machine. The three companies had 

 started production about the same time and approved 

 of Potter's idea; Howe opposed it as he felt that he 

 had the most to lose by joining the "Combination." 

 He finally consented to take part in Potter's plan if 

 the others would agree to certain stipulations. The 

 first requirement was that at least twenty-four manu- 

 facturers were to be licensed. The second was that, 

 in addition to sharing equally in the profits with the 

 three companies, Howe would receive a royalty of 

 $5 for each machine sold in the United States and 

 $1 for each machine exported. It has been estimated 

 that, as a result of this agreement, Howe received at 

 least $2,000,000 as his share of the license fees between 

 1856 and 1867 when his patent expired. 1 " 1 



The organization was called the Sewing-Machine 

 Trust and/or the Sewing-Machine Combination. 

 The important patents contributed to it were: 



1. The grooved, eye-pointed needle used with a 

 shuttle to form the lockstitch (E. Howe patent, 

 held by E. Howe ) ; 



2. The four-motion feeding mechanism (A. B. Wilson 

 patent, held by Wheeler and Wilson company); 



3. The needle moving vertically above a horizontal 

 work-plate (Bachelder patent), a continuous feeding 

 device by belt or wheel (Bachelder patent), a 



M These included the American Magnetic Sewing Machine 

 Co.; A. Bartholf; Nichols and Bliss; J. A. Lcrow: Woolridge, 

 Keene, and Moore; and A. B. Howe. ,V<-c York Daily Tribune, 

 Sept. i. 185:S. 



""' "Who Invented tin- Sewing-Machine," unsigned article 

 in The Galaxy, vol. 4. August 31, 1867, pp. 471-481. 



11 



