ard to the effect that a model of his
sewing machine, received with the collection, was turned over to the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology; however, Mr. Lovett also stated
that from a manuscript memoir of Mr. Corliss that it would seem that he
developed only the one machine--the patent model. In a letter dated
November 15, 1954, Stanley Backer, assistant professor of mechanical
engineering, stated that after extensive inquiries they were unable to
locate the model at M.I.T. In 1964, Dr. Robert Woodbury, of M.I.T.,
turned over to the Smithsonian Institution the official copies of the
Corliss drawings and the specifications which had been awarded to the
inventor by the Patent Office. It is possible that this may have been
the material noted on the Harvard University card as having been
transferred to M.I.T.

[30] _Sewing Machine Times_ (July 10, 1907), vol. 26, no. 858, p. 1.

[31] This is the earliest known patent using the combination of an
eye-pointed needle and a shuttle to form a stitch.

[32] In embroidery, couching is the technique of laying a decorative
thread on the surface of the fabric and stitching it into place with a
second less-conspicuous thread.

_Chapter Two_

[Illustration: Figure 14.--HOWE'S PREPATENT MODEL of 1845, and the box
used by the inventor to carry the machine to England in 1847.
(Smithsonian photo 45506-B.)]

Elements of a Successful Machine

The requirements for producing a successful, practical sewing machine
were a support for the cloth, a needle to carry the thread through the
fabric and a combining device to form the stitch, a feeding mechanism to
permit one stitch to follow another, tension controls to provide an even
delivery of thread, and the related mechanism to insure the precise
performance of each operation in its proper sequence. Weisenthal had
added a point to the eye-end of the needle, Saint supported the fabric
by placing it in a horizontal position with a needle entering
vertically, Duncan successfully completed a chainstitch for embroidery
purposes, Chapman used a needle with an eye at its point and did not
pass it completely through the fabric, Krems stitched circular caps with
an eye-pointed needle used with a hook to form a chainstitch, Thimonnier
used the hooked needle to form a chainstitch on a fabric laid
horizontally, and Hunt created a new stitch that was more readily
adapted to sewing by machine than the hand stitches had been, but,
although