INGENUITY AND LUXURY 



a half interest that had been conveyed to his father 

 before his departure for England, and at once began 

 suits in the Boston and New York courts against man- 

 ufacturers who were making machines infringing on 

 his patents. 



The legal controversy was long and bitterly con- 

 tested, but in the end Howe succeeded in establishing 

 his claims. By this time, however, sewing-machines 

 had become necessities, and the inventor began reap- 

 ing his reward by compelling manufacturers using 

 his patent to pay a bounty of twenty-five dollars for 

 each machine manufactured, or to cease manufac- 

 turing. 



SUNDRY IMPROVEMENTS 



Such machines were crude affairs, with vertical 

 table and intermittent feed; but in 1849, John Bach- 

 elder made the next fundamental and important step 

 of combining the horizontal table and continuous 

 feed device. The feed consisted of an endless band of 

 leather set with small steel points. These points pro- 

 jected up through the horizontal table and penetrated 

 the material to be sewed, carrying it by an intermittent 

 motion to and beyond the needle. 



This was a great improvement over Howe's device, 

 but was entirely superseded by the invention of Allen 

 B. Wilson, two years later. This was what is known 

 as the "four-motion feed," which is noted for its sim- 

 plicity of action and admirable adaptability to the 

 purpose for which it was designed, and is still a popu- 

 lar one. It consists of "a serrated plate, which rises 



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