echanical skill was of an
order which made him as competent as any one else to achieve the task
proposed. He set to work to accomplish it, and, as he knew well the
dangers which surround an inventor, kept his own counsel. At his daily
labor, in all his waking hours, and even in his dreams, he brooded over
this invention. He spent many a wakeful night in these meditations, and
his health was far from being benefitted by this severe mental
application. Success is not easily won in any great undertaking, and Elias
Howe found that he had entered upon a task which required the greatest
patience, perseverance, energy and hopefulness. He watched his wife as
she sewed, and his first effort was to devise a machine which should do
what she was doing. He made a needle pointed at both ends, with the eye in
the middle, that should work up and down through the cloth, and carry the
thread through at each thrust, but his elaboration of this conception
would not work satisfactorily. It was not until 1844, fully a year after
he began the attempt to invent the machine, that he came to the conclusion
that the movement of a machine need not of necessity be an imitation of
the performance by hand. It was plain to him that there must be another
stitch by the aid of a shuttle and a curved needle with the eye near the
point. This was the triumph of his skill. He had now invented a perfect
sewing machine, and had discovered the essential principles of every
subsequent modification of his conception. Satisfied that he had at length
solved the problem, he constructed a rough model of his machine of wood
and wire, in October, 1844, and operated it to his perfect satisfaction.

"It has been stated by Professor Renwick and other scientists that Elias
Howe 'carried the invention of the sewing machine further on toward its
complete and final utility than any other inventor has ever brought a
first-rate invention at the first trial.' ...

"Having patented his machine, Howe endeavored to bring it into use. He was
full of hope, and had no doubt that it would be adopted at once by those
who were so much interested in the saving of labor. He first offered it to
the tailors of Boston; but they, while admitting its usefulness, told him
it would never be adopted by their trade, as it would ruin them.
Considering the number of machines now used by the tailoring interests
throughout the world, this assertion seems ridiculous. Other efforts were
equally unsuccess