Home of the Sewalot Site

By Alex I Askaroff

For antique and vintage sewing machines

Sewing Machine Fault Finder                     Sewing Machine Tension Problems

Willcox & Gibbs Sewing Machines
A brief history by Alex Askaroff

Link to Willcox & Gibbs chain stitch needles

  Willcox & Gibbs

The Willcox & Gibbs chain stitch machines are one of the most collected sewing machines of all time. Some say the sewing machine represents the finest piece of Victorian precision engineering in the sewing world.

Their beautiful lines and superb stitching make them a collectors dream. Today every collector and enthusiast has at least one W&G in their collection. Sewing machine eye candy at its very best.

Let me tell you what I have learnt about this amazing machine and the men who built it.

I have a short Youtube clip on the machine as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdeINfVy8pM&feature=youtu.be

James Edward Allen Gibbs 1829-1902

James Edward Allen Gibbs was a Shenandoah farmer from Rockbridge County, Virginia. He rarely saw the outside world. When he came across a picture of a Grover & Baker machine in a newspaper he decided to try and copy it. Mainly with a penknife, chisel, a few farm tools and some wood. Keen or what!

His sewing machine went on to be one of the best-selling sewing machines of all time.

They say he named his farm Raphine from the Greek, Raphis, "to sew." Eventually he became so well known and powerful that Raphine Community was named after him. So how did it all start?

James Edward Allen Gibbs wooden patent model, nothing like the model that finally went on sale. The innovation was the underneath looper to catch the thread.

Because he had only seen the top half of the Grover & Baker sewing machine he had to imagine how the bottom would work.

Click here to date you machine...Dating Willcox & Gibbs sewing machines

This is where his stroke of genius came in. James Edward Allen Gibbs manufactured a lower revolving hook to catch the top thread and twist it into a loop to lock it into the fabric.

Early patent diagram describing the motion of the hook.

What James Gibbs had not realised was that he had invented a completely new method of sewing, the chain stitch. In fact he did not even patent it for a while.

James Edward Allen Gibbs decided that he would hop on the train and head for Washington, the centre of new ideas in America at the time. In Washington he ploughed the streets, shows and fairs looking to see if anyone had a machine similar to his. None of the machines he encountered on his travels looked or operated like his.

In 1856, James Gibbs spotted a Singer model A made by the pioneer and multi-wife holder Isaac Singer in a shop and examined it carefully. Some say he saw his first real sewing machine being used in a tailors shop in Virginia. Anyway realising that his idea was completely different to a normal sewing machine he knew he was on to a winner.

All he had to do when he got home was make a smaller, metal, working model and he was in business.

He needed to get his machine patented as soon as humanly possibly. Isaac Singer was busily patenting anything that could be used in sewing as were hundreds of others. The race was on.

The 1856 Gibbs sewing machine

This amazingly early Gibbs  sewing machine, courtesy of Mike from Wolfgang's, is one of only a handful that exist pre-patent around 1856. There was no under-feed mechanism and no bottom thread.

Made in metal the James Gibbs sewing machine would be half the price and half the size and half the threading of his competitors. All he had to do was get to the patent office and fast!He had already had one minor patent granted but in 1857 he hit the big time.

United States Patent Office
Jas E A Gibbs Application 17427 June 2 1857
To all whom it may concern:
Be it known that I, James E A Gibbs of Mill Point in the county of Pocahontas and the State of Virginia, have invented certain new and useful improvements to the sewing machine. The design is intended to use a single upper thread caught caught by a lower looper or revolving hook. The thread-loop having been caught and twisted half a revolution, or one hundred and eighty degrees between each stitch is then released into the next loop of thread. This method is repeated to form the continuing stitch from the single upper thread. The material to be moved forward by pressurised wheel gears.

James Edward Allen Gibbs, known by many Chas or Allen Gibbs, patented the first practical and workable chain-stitch single-thread sewing machine on June 2, 1857. This was after his earlier patent for part of a sewing machine in 1856. He was awarded patent number 17,427 on his machine.

This is J E A Gibbs of Mill Point, Virginia later 1858 patent showing a much closer similarity to the models we collect today.

You can clearly see that his first Patent machine was nothing like the actual machine that went into production. By the time the Willcox & Gibbs chain stitch arrived on the sewing scene it had a standard A B Wilson Four-Motion-feed rather than cloth-feeding wheels. 

The 1860 Gibbs chainstitch

I have to say that on his machines there are at least five patent dates that pre-date this one, he may have been using other peoples patents under licence. One patent was as early as 1846! Probably one of the Howe patents.

So was James Edward Allen Gibbs working on the idea of a sewing machine for a lot longer than we think? Farming can be very busy one second then waiting for crops to grow the next, so we can guess that he spent his spare time fiddling with his inventions then shelving it when he was too busy. Oh for a time machine to help my research!

Willcox & Gibbs formerly founded in 1859

1857 The Partnership Begins

The partnership consisted of the inventor, James Edward Allen Gibbs and his investor James Willcox and James' son, Charles Henry Willcox.

Anyway, James Gibbs, now a businessman farmer, went into partnership with James Willcox and, James' son was keen to get into a trade so Charles Willcox joined the team.

Both the Wilcox's were entrepreneurs, investors and manufacturers of new fangled ideas. Allen Gibbs aged 30 years old became a principal in 1859 in the new Willcox & Gibbs Sewing Machine Company. He was on his way to becoming a millionaire.

Allen Gibbs worked with James Wilcox's son, Charles, to build the first proper patent model that we recognise today as the W&G chainstitch.

James Edward Allen Gibbs 1829-1902

J E A Gibbs a very 1860's look. I Wouldn't like to meet him in a dark alley!

Allen Gibbs later recounted,

"I was in Philadelphia in 1857 selling the first of my first two inventions in the office of Emery, Houghton and Company, when James Willcox came in. He remarked that he was a dealer in new inventions, and he asked me to come to his shop in a Masonic Hall and build a model of my machine for him".

People assume that it was Gibbs who was the inventor but Charles Willcox took out loads of patents on the Willcox & Gibbs sewing machine. It was C H Willcox who patented the Automatic tension, patent 43819, feed improvements, patent 44490 and 44491 in 1864. Willcox also patented the method of removing the twists in the thread that caused so many missed stitches on the early models. Patent 43657 was for his hemming feet and patent 42036 was for noise reduction on the feed.

The basic design of the W&G machines were based on the two main patents taken out by Gibbs in 1856 and 1857. The patents related to the formation of a chain stitch by a rotating hook and straight eye-pointed needle.

here you can see that Willcox & Carleton patented together.

By the way I still have some unique W&G chainstitch needles if you would like them just mail me: alexsussex@aol.com

page on dating Willcox & Gibbs sewing machines.

This 1861 patent clearly shows Chas Willcox as the inventor of the unique W&G needle with the grooved shank that made sure all needles went into the exact same position on the W&G machines. Another simple stroke of genius.

Link to: Willcox & Gibbs chainstitch needles

The Willcox & Gibbs Trademark on all their machines

Sharpe & Brown
Manufacturers

In 1858, Willcox & Gibbs engaged the firm of J. R. Brown & Sharpe of Providence, Rhode Island, to produce the sewing machines. They continued making W&G machines until after the Second World War finishing in 1948.

David Brown and his son Joseph opened a shop in Providence under the name David Brown & Son in 1833 for making and repairing clocks, watches and undertaking other precision work. Lucien Sharpe joined the business as an apprentice in 1848 and became a full partner in J.R. Brown & Sharpe in 1853.

The first sewing machines were finished in November 1858. Willcox, who was in charge of production, had no production problems at all with Brown & Sharp because at the time they were makers of clocks, watches and measuring instruments. They were used to working with super-fine tolerances and to a high quality. It was these points that were later to produce the wonderful machine collectors seek today.

Dating Willcox & Gibbs sewing machines

To work out an approximate date of for the A series (only for machines with the letter A, Automatic, before the number) try this formula. This is by no means perfect but does work in many cases.

Ignore the A and remove 279638 from your number. Divide the number you have left by 17500. Then add the first two digits of the number you have to 1877. This should give you an approximate year of manufacture. If your number comes out below 1, for example .78888888 then your machine was made between 1876 and 1879.

Example of letter A, Automatic, prefix Willcox & Gibbs chain stitch sewing machine made after 1875.

Take the number above, ignore the A, (545351), minus 279638 from it. Divide by 17500. Answer, 15.1836. Ignore everything but the first two digits (15). Add this to 1877. 1877 + 15, bingo. Approximate year of manufacture 1892. 

Also Courtney Willis has kindly worked out another even easier method of dating the Willcox & Gibbs machines with the A, Automatic prefix. Thanks Courtney.

Divide the serial number by 8,000 and then add 1838.

By averaging the two dates in the middle, using both methods, you may get close to your manufacturing date.

I do hope that helps you work out a rough age of your little W&G machine. If anyone out there has worked out a better dating system for the missing W&G dates do let me know: alexsussex@aol.com

Patent 29448 July 1860

Be it known that I, Chas H Willcox, Assignor to James Willcox, of New York of the County of New York and the State of New York have invented a means of securing the correct position of the needle in the needlebar. The adjustment of the needle is an important feature and often falls to untrained women and children employed as machinists to try and accomplish this. It has long be desired to accomplish this by an automatic action, without failure and with no need of skill.

Among those who worked on Willcox and Gibbs machines at the Brown and Sharpe factory was one Henry Leland who was in charge of the sewing-machine department from 1878 until 1890. See a little note of interest I have added at the bottom.

And so in 1858, the company had finally began the manufacture of a chainstitch sewing machine which gained popularity at once. While Grover & Baker and Wheeler & Wilson sewing machines were selling for around $100, the Willcox & Gibbs machine sold for $50.Incidentally that was double what Richard Mott Wanzer would later sell his Little Wanzer lockstitch for. A considerable sum in 1858 when the average wage was $4 a week.

Don't forget the weekly wage was little more than a few dollars in 1858, two years before the American Civil War. Making the machine the equivalent of $3,000 in today's money.

To market their machine, Willcox and Gibbs opened an office at 658 Broadway in New York City the following year.

The Automatic No Tension Sewing Machine
possesses features and advantages which make it the most
valuable sewing machine in the world. It is superior and in
advance of every other machine. It is the only sewing machine
in the world without a tension.
Ladies careful of health should have no other.
Willcox & Gibbs 658 Broadway New York.

The machines were a great success as they were half the price of competitors and generally regarded as the most reliable of any single thread or chainstitch machines. Gibbs advertised his machines as having an elastic chain stitch and they certainly handled many different fabrics with ease. 

Early Machines have a wealth of patent info on them. This one is very unusual as having an 1846 date. In fact there are five pre-1857 dates!These were patents that they used under licence by W&G for a fee (like the Elias Howe patent of September 10th1846 shown above). Once all these patents expired it was no longer necessary to have them on the plates. It is a handy way of dating your W&G besides its serial number.

Note how, if you look at the back of a W&G machine, the profile/outline of the machine is a perfect G, a clever little idea apparently patented by Gibbs had so that you could instantly recognise his machine. Between Charles & James Willcox, Allen Gibbs made one of the most famous sewing machines in the world. Most of the patents were taken out by Willcox & Gibbs but in 1871 two patents (June & July) were taken out by Willcox & Carleton.   

One of the best things about the W&G machines is that all the components were checked with very accurate watch and clock gauges to ensure that all parts were easily interchangeable. This was truly mass production on a superb quality and scale. Their machines were much lighter and smoother than the competitions and were ideal for such difficult tasks as hat making. 

With sales flourishing, Willcox & Gibbs had their impressive main offices built on Broadway in New York and established themselves as major players in the sewing field.

Due to the weight of shipping the machines to England, the firm had special hand wheels cast, originally in Coalbrookdale, England. Been there it's great.

These hand wheel versions were completely different to the large cast iron treadle ones that sold in the States and have proved a great favourite with collectors.   

If one thread will do, why bother with two,
To break, to confuse, and to tangle?
There is not a sound when my looper goes round,
No shuttles or bobbins to jangle.

I am quick, yet I make not a single mistake,
You have only to keep me a-going. 
And never will I shirk the least bit of work. 
But do all the family sewing. 

All have confessed, that I am best 
For fine robes for dear baby I prepare; 
While the boisterous boy will fail to destroy 
My work with the roughest of Wear. 

And when the fair maid is for bridal arrayed 
I make with the neatest of seams, 
The elegant trousseau, that gratifies you so, 
And fills the fond lover with sweat dreams. 

An article praising The W&G  machine appeared in an 1859 issue of Scientific American.

It concluded that-- one cannot but admire the beauty and accuracy of the machine's movements, and the entire absence of all noise, even when it is running at the rate of two-thousand stitches and upwards per minute.

the machine was a hit and sold like hot cakes.

In Britain, orders we initially taken by a Miss Headdon of Fleet Street as can be seen from the advert below.

London 1860

 The Willcox & Gibbs European arm was set up in the late 1850's at 37 Moorgate Street. In 1859 they moved to larger more prominent premises at 135 Regent's Street, London.

Willcox & Gibbs later had their European head offices at 150 Cheapside and 20 Fore Street, London. The same road incidentally as Frister & Rossmann and several other major manufacturers and importers like The American Sewing Machine Co. They must have all known each other and been in competition with each other.

W&G protected their machines as well as possible and advertised strenuously to stop people from buying similar competitors models.

Willcox & Gibbs Models

The most perfect regularity and beauty of any sewing machine. Gold medal winners Vienna 1873.

Willcox & Gibbs started at No 1 with their patent model and from then on any alteration that went into a model was denoted by a model change, however small. Although there were literally hundreds of different chain stitch models they were all very similar.

The Model B Willcox & Gibbs had a scrolled base but little else was different. No one has yet come up with why it had this base?

For example a simple change to the tension denoted another number. The incorporation of the new Willcox needlebar, another number. The grooved needle another. So Willcox & Gibbs model numbers quickly shot up although to the normal eye little difference was seen.

Willcox & Gibbs model 64

The most popular model that we all know is the model 64 chain stitch above, post 1876 which is the stable mate of many a collection around the world. Nearly every important development in the W&G was in this machine.

1866

First class agents sought for Jamaica and the West Indies. Apply in writing to Turnbull & Lees, Harbour Street, Kingston, Jamaica.

E Vernon, sewing machines supplied from our own houses. Special Agent for Willcox & Gibbs, Care of Middleton, Freer & Co.

Below is the hat machine model 200. Really very similar to the 64 but with a free-arm sleeve, different tensioner, threading and far larger feed to help the hats through. A rare machine today since the decline in hat sales.

Willcox & Gibbs sewing machine for straw hats

Once all the main patents ran out manufacturers were entitled to copy the best idea on the market. These ran from 7 to 14 years maximum.

It is well known that Frister & Rossmann bought out an almost identical chainstitch to the W&G. They in turn sold these models to The American Sewing Machine Co (A British firm funnily connected in some way with the importers E. Todd). 

The Eldredge Automatic sewing machine was a straight copy of the W&G

Eldredge Sewing Machine

Krus & Murphy clone of the W&G, still a beauty and super rare today. I missed this one at auction and still kick myself.

The Edredge Sewing Machine Company was formed by its founder Barnabas Eldredge in 1865/6. Later he combined with the June Sewing Machine Company founded by F T June. The June company were busy manufacturing Jennie June's a Singer 12 New Family clone.

Manufacturing moved to Belvedere Illinois where a huge factory grew employing hundreds of skilled workmen. They made a large range of machines supplying all the usual stores and outlets.

Upon the death of June in 1890 Barnabas Eldredge consolidated the two companies into the National Sewing Machine Company. He remained in charge until his death in 1911 though the company continued on for many years.

While trading as the National Sewing Machine Company they continued with the W&G clone and in Europe they had offices at Fetter Lane, London.

Eldredge Automatic Sewing Machine, later to become the National Sewing Machine.

Other copies of the W&G were also Meyers of Leipzig and Clemens Muller who had similar machines.

There were at least 30 Willcox & Gibbs clones around the world. Some of them very rare today.

Frister & Rossmann Chain-stitch sewing machine

A super rare W&G copy, Frister & Rossmann's Berlin Chainstitch now in my Sewalot collection

Due to the superb engineering of the Willcox & Gibbs chain stitch machines they were popular for many decades and remained almost unchanged except for minor feed modifications since the introduction of the Automatic Tension in 1874-1876.

The pre 1874 models had a glass tensioner models and are now extremely rare.

Standard threading, oiling and parts for the Willcox & Gibbs machine

Simplicity, Speed and Silence

The pre-1875 non-automatic tensioned W&G machines are similar but different.

Below is a picture from one in my collection. They rarely survive in this condition and it is worth looking at your normal machine and comparing the differences, there are many. 

Dating Willcox & Gibbs sewing machines

The Willcox & Gibbs machines were available on free trial they were so sure that you would love them!

Civil War enthusiasts love this model as the stitch it makes is the real thing that men in uniform would have had there clothes made on. Below is the early pre 1875 Willcox & Gibbs sewing machine. It is worth noting the differences.

W&G The difference

An early 1866 model Glass-tensioned Willcox & Gibbs sewing machine. Some came on deeper wooden bases.

Attack

The Stockwell brothers also had dealings with Sharpe and Willcox. These dealings came to a head in 1874 when Alden Stockwell tried to enforce his claim to 1,500 shares of the W&G company, which would have given him control of the W&G company. It all ended up in Supreme Court Chambers with judge Lawrence presiding. It appears that it was an aggressive take over bid to which Sharpe and Willcox sought an injunction on the grounds that the purchasing of the shares had not proceeded clearly or correctly. They were successful with their claim and W&G continued trading under Sharpe and Willcox.

In 1887 a Willcox & Gibbs Automatic machine was selling in the UK for £6 with its box and bits.

Now, with the average wage at under ten shillings a week in Britain this represented a sum of 12 weeks wages! What would that be today. Average wage £300 a week times that by 12. Now you see why they are such good buys on Ebay. Grab one while you can before they rocket again!

You can understand why these beauties have survived, they were built with no expense spared and were little masterpieces of Victorian engineering. Today technology has marched on but you will never beat this model for sheer quality.

  1862 Willcox & Gibbs sewing machine

As I have said the main or Chief Office was at 20 Fore Street, London but they had agents in most cities in the UK. Here are the Willcox & Gibbs shops and offices that I am aware of...

Nottingham...................11 Market Street
Manchester.................. 83 Mosley Street
Leeds............................ 87 & 89 Park Lane
Leicester.......................94 High Street
Birmingham..................Bright Buildings, John Bright Street
Luton.............................Silver Street
Glasgow........................75 Renfield Street

And main European Agents

Belfast...........................12 Dublin Road
Paris...............................20 Rue Des Petits-Champs
Milan.............................5 Viale Piave
Brussels.........................51 Quai Au Bois A Bruler. The agent was possibly Otto Carl Goltz who also had premises in Antwerp.

The James Gibbs sewing machine...

James Gibbs sewing machine. James did not only make the usual models, this is from an 1877 patent application.

The Willcox & Gibbs Company carried on trading for decades and had manufacturing plants all over the world making all sorts of machines and attachments. Later they merged with MEC and became MEC-Willcox.

Chief Office in England was 94-96 Wigmore Street, London. In New York it became 214, West 39th Street.

Branch offices were all around the world.

Belfast, 12 Dublin Street.

Glasgow 80 West Nile Street.

Leeds, 68-72 New Briggate.

Brussels, 233 Rue Royale.

Leicester, 94 High Street.

Manchester, 83 Mosley Street.

Nottingham, 25 Castle Gate.

Paris, 20 Rue des Petits Champs.

Right up to the 1970's, In the UK, Willcox & Gibbs had a factory, manufacturing sewing machines, in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.

Willcox & Gibbs chainstitch needles

Dating Willcox & Gibbs sewing machines

Marketing was everything with the sewing machine pioneers and W&G were amongst the best. They advertised relentlessly bombarding the public with their version of the chainstitch.

The Simple Truth
W7G advert from 1867

It is a misconception put about by unscrupulous suppliers is that only a shuttle machine produces a lock stitch. Shuttle machines produce a stitch so devoid of elasticity that they cannot produce the strength, beauty and permanence of the Willcox & Gibbs machines.

Old Chain Stitch machines produce a stitch so deficient in principle that it can never be relied on.

Double loop stitch machines like the Grover & Baker produce a large ridge of thread beneath the work that it is impossible to make a flat seam.

The Seams produced by our machines has none of the defects mentioned. The Willcox & Gibbs machines are of the highest degree and simplicity in use. They produce a stitch so reliable, so perfectly effective and so under control that a child may manage our machines successfully.

This advert was to show how the W&G machine stitch held out while the lock stitch simply failed.

And now for a little fact

Leland, one of the men at the Brown and Sharpe factory went on to devote the skills that he had learned on sewing machines to good use, forming the prestigious Cadillac Car Company. How about that for a cracker! 

Crinkle finish Willcox & Gibbs sewing machine 1900

By the end of the Victorian era electricity was becoming available and the Willcox & Gibbs sewing machines worked flawlessly with an electric motor.

WILLCOX & GIBBS SEWING MACHINE CO, Ltd., 94-96 WIGMORE STREET, LONDON, W.1 (1943)

Willcox & Gibbs in England
 

One final legend

Company legend was that the flatlock Willcox & Gibbs sewing machine shape was designed by Amelia Earheart (the pilot). Possibly via Brown and Sharp. (Oh how I would love that to be true).

Well that's all I know about the Willcox & Gibbs early sewing mahcines. I spend endless nurd-hours (that's a phrase I made up) researching and writing these pages so do let me know what you thought or if you have any information to add: alexsussex@aol.com

The James Gibbs wooden & metal sewing machine of the early 1850's with unique hook mechanism to make a chain stitch.

I have a few Willcox & Gibbs needles left. Mail me for details: alexsussex@aol.com

News Flash!

Fancy a funny read: Ena Wilf  & The One-Armed Machinist

A brilliant slice of 1940's life: Spies & Spitfires

Alex's stories are now available to keep. Click on the picture for more information.