of the sewing-machine, we know not how to be cautious enough; for scarcely anything can be said on that branch of the subject which some one has not an interest to deny. We, the other day, looked over the testimony taken in one of the suits which Messrs. Grover and Baker have had to sustain in defence of their well-known "stitch." The testimony in that single case fills two immense volumes, containing three thousand five hundred and seventy-five pages. At the Wheeler and Wilson establishment in Broadway, there is a library of similar volumes, resembling in appearance a quantity of London and Paris Directories. The Singer Company are equally blessed with sewing-machine literature, and Mr. Howe had chests full of it. We learn from these volumes that there is no useful device connected with the apparatus, the invention of which is not claimed by more than one person. And no wonder. If to-day the ingenious reader could invent the slightest real improvement to the sewing-machine, so real that a machine having it would possess an obvious advantage over all machines that had it not, and he should sell the right to use that improvement at so low a rate as fifty cents for each machine, he would find himself in the enjoyment of an income of one hundred thousand dollars per annum. The consequence is, that the number of patents already issued in the United States for sewing-machines, and improvements in sewing-machines, is about nine hundred! Perhaps thirty of these patents are valuable; but the great improvements are not more than ten in number, and most of those were made in the infancy of the machine.

By general consent of the able men who are now conducting the sewing-machine business, the highest place in the list of improvers is assigned to Allen B. Wilson. This most ingenious gentleman completed a practical sewing-machine early in 1849, without ever having seen one, and without

having any knowledge of the devices of Elias Howe, who was then buried alive in London. Mr. Wilson, at the time, was a very young journeyman cabinet-maker, living in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. After that desperate contest with difficulty which inventors usually experience, he procured a patent for his machine, improved it, and formed a connection with a young carriage-maker of his acquaintance, Nathaniel Wheeler, who had some capital; and thus was founded the great and famous house of Wheeler and Wilson, who are now making sewing-machines at the rate of about fifty-three thousand a year. These gentlemen were honest enough in opposing the claim of Elias Howe, since Mr. Wilson knew himself to be an original inventor, and he employed devices not to be found in Mr. Howe's machine. Instead of a shuttle, he used a "rotating hook,” —a device as ingenious as any in mechanism. The" four-motion feed," too, was another of Mr. Wilson's masterly inventions, sufficient of itself to stamp him as an inventor of genius. Nothing, therefore, was more natural than that Messrs. Wheeler and Wilson should regard Mr. Howe's charge of infringe ment with astonishment and indignation, and join in the contest against him.

Messrs. Grover and Baker were early in the field. Williain O. Grover was a Boston tailor, whose attention was directed to the sewing-machine soon after Mr. Howe's return from Europe. It was he who, after numberless trials, invented the exquisite devices by which the famous "Grover and Baker stitch" is formed, - a stitch which, for some purposes, is of unequalled utility.

When, by the decision of the courts, all the makers had become tributary to Elias Howe, paying him a certain sum for each machine made, then a most violent warfare broke out among the leading houses, Singer and Company,

Wheeler and Wilson, Grover and Baker, each accusing the others of infringement. At Albany, in 1856, these causes were to be tried; and parties concerned saw before them a good three months' work in court. By a lucky chance, one member of this happy family had not entirely lost his temper, and was still in some degree capable of using his intellect. It occurred to this wise head, that, no matter who invented first, or who second, there were then assembled at Albany the men who, among them, held patents which controlled the whole business of making sewing-machines; and that it would be infinitely better for them to combine and control, than to contend with and devour one another. They all came into this opinion; and thus was formed the "Combination," of which such terrible things are uttered by the surreptitious makers of sewing-machines. Elias Howe, who was the best-tempered man in the world, and only too easy in matters pecuniary, had the complaisance to join this confederation, only insisting that at least twenty-four licenses should be issued by it, so as to prevent the manufacture from sinking into a monopoly. By the terms of this agreement, Mr. Howe was to receive five dollars upon every machine sold in the United States, and one dollar upon each one exported. The other parties agreed to sell licenses to use their various devices, or any of them, at the rate of fifteen dollars for each machine; but no license was to be granted without the consent of all the parties. It was further agreed that part of the license fees received should be reserved as a fund for the prosecution of infringers. This agreement remained unchanged until the renewal of Mr. Howe's patent in 1860, when his fee was reduced from five dollars to one dollar, and that of the Combination from fifteen dollars to That is to say, every sewing-machine honestly made paid Elias Howe one dollar; and every sewing-machine

seven.

made, which included any device or devices the patent for which is held by any other member of the Combination, paid seven dollars to the Combination. Of this seven dollars, Mr. Howe received his one, and the other six went into the fund for the defence of the patents against infringers.

ORIGIN OF THE

COTTON-WEAVING MACHINERY.

ONE evening, about a hundred years ago, Dr. Franklin and Dr. Priestley were conversing at the Royal Society Club in London, upon the progress of the arts and sciences. The question arose at length, what was the most desirable invention that remained to be made; upon which Dr. Franklin expressed himself thus: "A machine capable of spinning two threads at the same time."

The cotton manufacture, introduced into England about the year 1620, was then fast rising into importance. We read in an English book, published in 1641, the following interesting passage:

"The town of Manchester buys linen yarn from the Irish in great quantity, and weaving it, returns again the same in linen into Ireland to sell. Neither does her industry rest here; for they buy cotton wool in London that comes from Cyprus and Smyrna, and work the same into fustians, vermilions, and dimities, which they return to London, where they are sold, and from thence not seldom are sent into such foreign parts, where the first material may be more easily had for that manufacture."

At this time, and for more than a century after, the weaver bought his own yarn, took it home to his cottage, and wove it into cloth; so that each weaver's house was a little factory. He bought the yarn for the warp; the wool for the woof was carded and spun by his wife and daughters, while the weav