1853 - William Wickersham's Patent Model of a Sewing Machine (leather)

Object Details

Description: Sewing Machine Patent Model; Patent No. 9,679 issued April 19, 1853; William Wickersham of Lowell, Massachusetts; Wickersham exhibited his boot and leather sewing machine at the “New York Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations” in 1853. His address in the catalogue for the exhibition was listed as 20 Bulfinch Street, Boston.; In 1853 and 1854, Butterfield & Stevens Mfg. Co., of Boston.; Massachusetts, manufactured sewing machines based on his patent of April 19, 1853. In his patent specification, Wickersham wrote, “My machine for sewing cloth, leather, or other material is calculated to sew either a chain stitch (the formation of which is well understood) or a stitch . . . formed of two threads, and so that the loops of one . . . shall alternately pass through or be interlocked with those of the other . . . .” Although he mentions sewing cloth, it was for sewing leather for boots and shoes that his sewing machine became important. Wickersham’s patents introduced the method that allowed for the use of sewing leather with waxed thread. The development of mechanisms that would allow for sewing with wax thread was crucial to the industrialization of the shoe making industry.
Location: Currently not on view

Related Publication: Janssen, Barbara Suit. Patent Models Index; Cooper, Grace Rogers. The Sewing Machine: Its Invention and Development
Related Web Publication: http://www.sil.si.edu/DigitalCollections/HST/Cooper/CF/view.cfm

See more items in: Home and Community Life: Textiles; Patent Models, Sewing Machines; Sewing Machines; Textiles; Patent Models

National Museum of American History

GUID (Link to Original Record): https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a9-3525-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa