John Aielli mentioned that today is Elias Howe's birthday. Howe invented the sewing machine (ok, he perfected what other people had not been able to successfully do for the sewing machine) back in 1846. There's some interesting info on him over on Wikipedia.
Happy Birthday, Elias! So happy you were able to get that whole lockstitch thing down!
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Happy Birthday, Elias!
Thanks for the sewing machine!
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"Howe contributed much of the money he earned to the Union Army during the Civil War." Oh LAWD no!
ReplyDeleteI don't remember where I saw this, but I read that Howe didn't initially patent his invention because he worried it would put too many seamstresses and tailors out of work. Garment sweatshops wouldn't have existed (at least not in the form they did/do) without the sewing machine--at the same time, though, the machine freed countless women from *having* to handsew everything, and even today, women in remote Guatemalan villages get a chance at economic autonomy when they acquire a sewing machine. How much economic displacement and opportunity his invention has created for folks around the world!
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