scending vertical needle enchained it, and the
process repeated. The slack in the needle thread was controlled by means
of a spring guide. The cloth was fed by feeding rolls and a band.

[Illustration: Figure 36.--GROVER'S PATENT MODEL FOR THE FIRST PORTABLE
CASE, 1856. The machine in the case is a commercial machine of 1854,
bearing the serial number 3012 and the patent dates "Feby 11, 1851, June
22, 1852, Feby 22, 1853." Powered by a single, foot-shaped treadle that
was connected by a removable wooden pitman, it also could be turned by
hand. (Smithsonian photo 45525-D.)]

A company was organized under the name of Grover and Baker Sewing
Machine Company, and soon the partners took Jacob Weatherill, mechanic,
and Orlando B. Potter, lawyer (who became the president), into the firm.
Potter contributed his ability as a lawyer in lieu of a financial
investment and handled the several succeeding patents of Grover and
Baker. These patents were primarily for mechanical improvements such as
U.S. patent No. 9,053 issued to Grover and Baker on June 22, 1852, for
devising a curved upper needle and an under looper[62] to form the
double-looped stitch which became known as the Grover and Baker stitch.
One of the more interesting of the patents, however, was for the box or
sewing case for which Grover was issued U.S. patent No. 14,956 on May
27, 1856. The inventor stated "that when open the box shall constitute
the bed for the machine to be operated upon, and hanging the machine
thereto to facilitate oiling, cleansing, and repairs without removing it
from the box." It was the first portable sewing machine (fig. 36).

Though the Grover and Baker company manufactured machines using a
shuttle and producing the more common lockstitch, both under royalty in
their own name and also for other smaller companies, Potter was
convinced that the Grover and Baker stitch was the one that eventually
would be used in both family and commercial machines. He, as president,
directed the efforts of the company to that end. When the basic patents
held by the "Sewing-Machine Combination" (discussed on pp. 41-42) began
to run out in the mid-1870s, dissolving its purpose and lowering the
selling price of sewing machines, the Grover and Baker company began a
systematic curtailing of expenses and closing of branch offices. All the
patents held by the company and the business itself were sold to
another company.[63] But the members of the Grover and Baker com