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Alex has spent a lifetime in the sewing industry and is considered one of the foremost experts of pioneering machines and their inventors. He has written extensively for trade magazines, radio, television, books and publications world wide. |
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The Grover & Baker Sewing
Machine Co
The Grover & Baker Sewing Machine Co of Boston Massachusetts was founded by two of the pioneers in sewing machine history, William O. Grover and William E. Baker. Both were Boston tailors. Often considered the Holy Grail to collectors, when the revolutionary Grover & Baker machines came out they were in a world of their own, let me tell you why.
William Grover was fascinated by the early sewing machines and being a tailor knew what benefit a good sewing machine would make to his industry. During the 1840’s he continually experimented with sewing machines while he was not busy making a living as a tailor. Of course the huge wealth he would acquire if he could make a reliable sewing machine would have been a great driving force and a stark contrast to the meagre living he could make hand-sewing clothes for other people. His genius was to prove the foundation of one of the most successful early sewing machine companies.
William Grover concentrated on the lower thread mechanism and by May 8th 1849 was granted his first patent. Spurred on by his partner more patents quickly followed in 1850, 1851 and 1852.
During the life of the G&B Co many more patents were to come most would make them rich men but one in particular was to cause them a huge amount of trouble.
William managed to figure out how to use a complete reel of sewing thread as the lower thread. This was a brilliant idea as it eliminated the need for a bobbin or bobbin winder. By the use of a lower looper, still used in over lock machines today, he produced a double-elastic chainstitch with a clever twisted double lower thread interlinking the upper thread. Hey it sounds tricky but it sewed like a dream.
The stitch was strong and had excellent elasticity for fabrics and woollens. On top of this there was no bobbin. They were onto a winner. Think about it today wouldn't it be great to simply place a complete reel of thread under the sewing machine.
By 1851 the business was up and running with a couple of investors/helpers-come-partners. One was a skilled mechanic brought in to help in the manufacture, Jacob Weatherill. The other was the shrewd lawyer Orlando B. Potter who was to guide the company through many stormy litigation's and eventually rise to president. No, not of America… Of Grover & Baker.
Orlando was soon put to work when one of the G&B patents was attacked. A B. Wilson had invented a very similar feed mechanism though it was unclear if he had actually patented it properly. Basically it was a set of teeth that moved the work forward then dropped out of the way and repeated the process for each stitch. Wilson called it the four-motion feed. The problem was that machines were already being sold with very similar feeds, even in Europe. Both companies Wheeler & Wilson and G&B ended up in court. Another big problem was that both the Wheeler & Wilson machines and the Grover & Baker machine looked similar, right down to the curved needle. The W&W model did have a unique rotary hook which I tell you more about on their own page. There was no doubt that someone had copied, even if it was subconsciously. Orlando was doing well until Wilson produced a slightly earlier, very vague, patent for the four-motion feed mechanism. Rats! The case was lost and compensation had to be made. It is still in doubt who really invented the feed and Wilson, a nervous man, never made the huge gains he had hoped from it. Patents are funny things, Singer never patented his treadle-come-packing-case even though he was using it daily in exhibitions and Willcox & Gibbs failed to patent their unique hook for a long time. The main two types of feed mechanisms of the day are still in use today, the walking foot used by heavier industrial machines and the four-motion feed of Wilson's
All this legal stuff was holding up production and sales. Something had to be done. Elias Howe was suing Singer and just about everyone else. Singer was suing everyone and chasing women in equal amounts. G&B were getting stuck in the middle of it all. Then came a brainwave of outstanding proportion. Later on in our history it became quite illegal, though it took an act of Congress to change the law first! The Brainwave By the 1850's just about every design of any importance in the manufacture of sewing machines had been patented by just a handful of men. Don't forget it costs money for patents. Even Elias Howe's dad had to mortgage the family farm. Orlando suggested that if all the main patent holders got together rather than squabbling all day they could form a cartel. This in turn would effectively have a stranglehold on the new sewing machine business. They could charge loads of dosh for licences for anyone who wanted to make sewing machines and share the money out between themselves. All agreed and the Sewing Machine Cartel was formed. How they must have all laughed. I can see them now, enemies united in a common lust for wealth. Pass out the cigars boys... Before long Grover & Baker machines were being sold all over the world. You can see below the offices in London and Liverpool.
Back to our two Boston tailors. Production at their plant produced a whopper of a machine much like the first Singer model A but with their unique double elastic stitch. Their first machines were big and bulky. Not the sort of machine you could take shopping or even move without the help of some strapping builder. Something had to be done and it was done in style. Another patent followed and the world was about to see another Grover & baker first.
Grover & Baker patented the very first portable sewing machine. It is the machine, which many collectors recognise today. This became a best-seller and dominated the 1850’s with some 500,000 being made over a period of 20 years. Various models came out some with fancy silver-plating and mother-of-pearl but besides a curved needle and cosmetic changes of shape they were principally the same machine.
These light running portable machines were the stuff of dreams, every household wanted one. People would travel miles to see this magical box that could be opened on a table and join any kind of fabric in seconds. It was the future. Hard to believe now but it helped shape the world we live in today. After the American Civil War G&B were on a boom. Hire purchase schemes devised by Clarke, Isaac Singer's accountant, allowed ordinary folk like us to buy their dreams and pay for them over years. It was to be their glory years and the height of their production. Between 1865 and 1870 the business boomed and some years over 50,000 machines were produced.
Now it was not all sunshine and roses. The machine produced a superb stitch but it had drawbacks. One was that it was bulky underneath and pretty useless in fine garment seams. This was not a problem when the competition was producing poor sewing machines but as they improved G&B stuck with their bulky stitches. It was to be their undoing. I made little sewing joke there… Okay I won't do anymore it was useless.
The other problem was that the lower thread system, unique to G&B, was using up to three times the amount of thread that a normal sewing machine used. Thread was expensive with a single reel costing several days wages. Have you ever come across a reel of thread that has lots of loose ends wound round it? The reason is that thread was so dear not a length was wasted. Garments were often carefully unpicked and if enough of a length was saved it would be wound back onto a reel for future use.
Once again in the 1850’s people put up with the drawbacks of the G&B but by 1870 with the new Singer 12k and many other machines making a good Lockstitch. The days of G&B’s old-fashioned machines were numbered. High prices and old technology spelt the beginning of the end for the two Boston tailors.
Now, I expect you are thinking why did they not simply not make a lockstitch machine to compete? Well they did, several in fact in lots of shapes and designs. But Orlando, now in charge, was so wrapped up in doggedly promoting the machine on which the business was founded that the company slid down and down against its competitors and along with it the profits dropped.
Had the company moved on and concentrated all their efforts on their lockstitch machines they well have been the household name Singer is today. Research and development was the key area in which they failed to invest.
Heavy thread use, bulky seams, curved needles. It was all outdated by 1870 and more bad news was to come. The Sewing Machine Cartel had been broken up so no more license fees. The patents were all running out so no more protection. By 1874 things were looking bleak for the Company and sales were at rock-bottom. Cheap new competitors machines outsold G&B by 10-1. However, cunning old Orlando was not silly, he had one final trick up his sleeve. When the Domestic Sewing Machine Co were looking to expand he made G&B look like an ideal prospect. When The Domestic Sewing Machine Co made an offer for Grover & Baker he bite their hands off and took it, all the directors benefited from the merger. From 1875 the two businesses amalgamated but within a very short time all the Grover & baker machines were stopped. Outdated production and old tooling made the factory unviable.
From cutting-edge technology Grover & Baker sewing machines had become dinosaurs in their own time. And so the names Grover & Baker fade into history, more casualties amongst the sewing machine pioneers. Law suits rumbled on right up until the 1890's but the business was long gone. Today Grover & Baker machines are no more than whispers from the past and sought after by all keen collectors. I have one, a model 13, in my collection. I often look at it and sometimes get it out to clean and oil it. The machine still makes a super stitch and I can see in my minds-eye the two Boston tailors peering over my shoulder with satisfied smiles. Say what you like the quality of there machines seem to defy time itself.
William O. Grover and William E. Baker were once giants amongst the pioneers of the sewing machine trade. The End
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Well that's it, I do hope you enjoyed my work.
I spend countless hours researching and writing these pages and I love to hear from
people so drop me a line and let me know what you thought: alexsussex@aol.com
Fancy a funny read: Ena Wilf & The One-Armed Machinist A brilliant slice of 1940's life: Spies & Spitfires
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