Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 August 1895 — THE EYE OF A NEEDLE. [ARTICLE]

THE EYE OF A NEEDLE.

How Elias Howe Came to Place it Where it Really Belonged. Elias Howe almost beggared himself before he discovered where the eye of the needle of a sewing machine should be located. It is probable that there are very few persons who knew how it came about. His original idea was to follow the model of the eye at the heel. It never occured to him that it should be placed near the point, and he might have failed altogether if he had not dreamed he was building a sewing machine for a savage king in a strange country. Just as in his actual waking experience he was rather perplexed about the needle’s eye. He thought the king gave him twentyfour hours to complete the machine and make it sew. If not finished in that time death was to be the punishment. Howe worked and worked, and puzzled and puzzled, and finally gave it up. Then he thought he was taken out to be executed. He noticed that the warriors carried spears that were pierced near the head. Instantly came the solution of the difficulty, and, while the inventor was begging for time, he awoke. It was 4 o’clock in the morning. He jumped out of bed, ran to his workshop, and by 9 a needle with an eye at the point had been rudely modeled. After that it was all easy. This is the true story of an important incident in the invention of the sewine machine. |