itted. The machine was based on the patents of William
P. Uhlinger: a mechanical patent for a double chainstitch machine on
August 17, 1858 (antedated May 8), and a patent for the casing on
December 28, 1858. The machine head was lowered into the casing as the
lid was brought forward and closed--an idea much ahead of its time.

This Quaker City machine, serial number 18, was purchased by Benjamin F.
Meadows of Lafayette, Alabama, for $150 just prior to the Civil War.
Relatively few machines of this type were manufactured, and the Quaker
City Sewing Machine Co. existed for only a few years. Its apparent hope
for a southern market was short-lived, and it was unable to compete
either with the companies licensed under the "Combination" or with those
producing less expensive machines. (Smithsonian photo 46953-A.)]

[Illustration: Figure 117.--FROM AN ADVERTISING BROCHURE, marked in ink,
"The National Portrait Gallery, 1855," in the Singer Company's archives.
The brochure states "Howard & Davis, 34 Water Street, Boston,
Massachusetts Sole Manufacturers of Robinson's Patent Sewing Machine
with Rope[r]'s Improvements." (Smithsonian photo 48091-F.)]

[Illustration: Figure 118.--SEWING MACHINE OF ABOUT 1856 with
inscription "Howard & Davis Makers, Boston, Mass. Robinson & Roper Pat.
Dec. 10, 1850, Aug. 15, 1854"; the drive wheel and the circular
stitching plate of this machine are missing. (Smithsonian photo
48440-C.)]

[Illustration: Figures 117 and 118.--ROBINSON AND ROPER sewing machines,
1855-1856. This is one of the few machines producing a backstitch or
half backstitch to realize any commercial success. Manufactured a very
short time by Howard & Davis, it was a short-thread machine, based on
the Frederick Robinson patent of December 10, 1850, and the Samuel Roper
patent of August 15, 1854. Roper produced additional improvements for
which he received a patent on November 4, 1856. In the _Scientific
American_, November 1, 1856, the new machine was discussed: "Robinson &
Roper exhibit their new improved sewing machines, which appear to
operate with great success. Two needles are employed, the points of
which are furnished with hooks that alternately catch the thread and
form the stitch. The finest kind of cotton thread or silk can be used.
The work appears well done. Price $100."]

[Illustration: Figure 119.--ILLUSTRATED PAGE in a Shaw & Clark
advertising brochure, published in late 1864. (Smithsonian photo
61321.)]

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