Topic: Elias Howe

Elias Howe (July 9, 1819 – October 3, 1867) was an American inventor and sewing machine pioneer. He was born in Spencer, Massachusetts.

Howe spent his childhood and early adult years in Massachusetts where he apprenticed in a textile factory and then for a master mechanic.

Contrary to popular belief that he invented the sewing machine, many other people, including Walter Hunt, had worked on the idea of such a machine before him. However, Howe refined these ideas into a functional machine and on September 10, 1846, he was awarded the first United States patent (#4750) for a sewing machine using a lockstitch design.