Figure 47. — The squirrel machine was another 

 interesting design patent. S. B. Ellithorp had 

 received a mechanical patent for a two-thread, 

 stationary-bobbin machine on August 26. 1857. 

 That same month he published a picture of his 

 machine, shown here as republished in the Sewing 

 Machine News, vol. 7. no. 1 1. November 1885. The 

 machine was designed in the shape of "the ordinary 

 gray squirrel so common throughout this country — 

 an animal that is selected as a type of provident 

 care and forethought, for its habits of frugality and 

 for making provision for seasons of scarcity and 

 want in times of plenty — and the different parts 

 of the animal are each put to a useful purpose; the 

 moving power being placed within its body, the 

 needle stock through its head, one of its fore feet 

 serving to guide the thread, and the other to hold 



down the cloth while being sewed, and the tip of 

 its tail forming a support to the spool from which 

 the thread is supplied." 



Although the design patent was not secured 

 until June 7, 1859, the inventor was reported to 

 have been perfecting his machine for manufacture 

 in 1857. Ellithorp planned "to place them in 

 in irket at a price that will permit families and 

 individuals that have heretofore been deterred from 

 purchasing a machine by the excessive and exorbi- 

 tant price charged for those now in use, to possess 

 one." Patent rights were sold under the name of 

 Ellithorp & Fox. but the machine was never manu- 

 factured on a large scale, if at all. No squirrel 

 machines are known to have survived. (Smith- 

 sonian photo 531 12.) 



51 



