Willcox And Gibbs Sewing Machine Serial Numbers

Ihave always had an eye for beautiful machines. Early sewingmachines were often considered the most beautiful of all the machinesman had made up to that point. Only early guns and clocksrivaled sewing machines for beauty.

I was an upholsterer and had seen many oldmachines, but never really thought of owning one just for theheck of it. But this one wasdifferent. First however, I came home and did some research on it. As I soonlearned, the company had quite a history which only added tomy interest in owning it. The following day I bought it. Turnsout that my machine is museum quality. There are very few left inthis condition and I have yet to see one as good as mine.

Event date: event description: 2013-01-10: new application office supplied data entered in tram: 2013-01-11: notice of pseudo mark mailed: 2013-04-12: assigned to examiner.

I have every part made for this machine and then some.

If you have a Willcox and Gibbs and are wondering about its age, you can use the serial number to date it. This is particularly useful for older Willcox and Gibbs machines. You can find the serial number on the side of the machine. For the first 10 years of the company's history, they used serial numbers in a range of 10,000 for each year.
Oct 18, 2014 - www.sewalot.com - A site dedicated to sewing, sewing machines, collectors of sewing machines and other related topics.

Ifyou've ever opened a big bag of flour, pet food, salt, litter, or anyof a hundred other items that come in a bag with a sewn top, you've used the process that James Gibbsinvented: The Chain Stitch Sewing Machine.

HERE'S THE WV CONNECTION

ON THE DIVIDING LINE between Augusta and Rockbridge counties Virginialies Walnut Grove, home of Cyrus Hall McCormick, inventor ofthe reaper. McCormick's invention assured him of lasting fame andrecognition, but in a nearby village lived another inventor whoseaccomplishments were overshadowed by his competitors and whose work islittle remembered outside his native Rockbridge county.

James Edward Allen Gibbs invented a sewing machine and founded a company tomarket it which is still in existence today. He is the only inventoroutside of the New England states to produce a sewing machine. YetElias Howe and Isaac Singer are the names usually associated with thehistory of the early sewing machine and few have ever heard of JamesEdward Allen Gibbs.

From 1845 until 1856 when he patented his sewingmachine, Gibbs worked at various occupations and in several differentlocations. For awhile he rented a building and operated a carding mill( Before wool can be spun into yarn for knitting or weaving into cloth,it first must be brushed, or carded ) in Lexington Virginia, butfinding himself debt ridden, he left there in the early 1850s and wentto Huntersville in Pocahontas County, now in West Virginia.(Huntersville still exists and is only 6 miles East of Marlington)Gibbs became a partner in another carding business, but sold hisinterest when that business, too, proved to be unsuccessful.

After leaving the carding business, Gibbs engagedin a variety of activities. He joined a surveying team in RandolphCounty, also in present-day West Virginia. On a surveying expeditionhe suffered a serious injury when, while cutting down a small pinetree, his ax slipped, cutting through his right knee cap. Hiscompanions took him to the home of Alexander Logan at MingoFlat (the town is still there half way between Snowshoe andValley Head WV) where for six months the Logan family, and especiallyWilliam Logan, nursed him through to his recovery.

(Afterthe Civil War, when fortune had favored Gibbs and taken everything fromWilliam Logan, Gibbs aided Logan in establishing a store at Midway,Virginia.) The knee injury, however, preventedGibbs from resuming his career as a surveyor and he became a carpenterand a millwright. In the winter of 1851-52, he built a grist andsawmill for Colonel Samuel Given in Nicholas County.

Whileengaged in this project, he met Colonel Given's daughter, Catherine.The dark-haired young man with the big nose and sharp blue eyes couldnot have been called handsome, but he had a strong personality, and asocial nature that Catherine must have found charming for they weremarried on August 25, 1852.

Refusing his father-in-law's offer of 500 acres ofland and the equipment to start a farm, Gibbs returned with his wife toPocahontas County where he continued to work as a carpenter.

Elias Howe, William O. Grover, William E. Baker,Isaac Singer and others, patented sewing machines in the early 1850sand revolutionized the clothing industry. In 1855, Gibbs saw a woodcutof a Grover and Baker sewing machine in a newspaper advertisement. Itwas the first image of these new contraptions that he had seen andthere was little to show him how it worked.

All that was shownin the woodcut was the top half of the machine. Nothing indicated thatmore than one thread was used to form the stitch or indeed how thestitches were made. Gibbs decided that only one thread was used andsince his curiosity was aroused, he formed in his mind a method forproducing a single thread stitch. He later described the experience,saying:

'AsI was then living in a very out-of-the-way place, far from railroadsand public conveyances of all kinds, modern improvements seldom reachedour locality, and not being likely to have my curiosity satisfiedotherwise, I set to work to see what I could learn from the woodcut,which was not accompanied by any description.

Gibbs'scuriosity had been satisfied and he did not immediately pursue thematter because he did not realize the significance of his invention.However, in January 1856, when he was visiting his father in RockbridgeCounty, he happened to enter a tailor's shop and there saw a Singersewing machine. Although Gibbs was impressed by the machine, he thoughtthat it was 'entirely too heavy, complicated, and cumbersome, and theprice exorbitant'. He remembered his own simpler invention and decidedto work seriously on a less-expensive sewing machine.

JamesE. A. Gibbs was hampered in his attempt to perfect his sewing machinebecause he had to support his growing family and could only work on theinvention at night and during inclement weather. In addition, he lackedproper tools and sufficient materials.

After months ofeffort, Gibbs succeeded in making, with his pocket knife, a crudewooden model. He made the needles for the machine himself and,according to his daughter, used the flexible root of mountain ivy tofashion the revolving looper which was the key to his invention. ByApril 1856, it was almost ready and Gibbs reportedly sold a halfinterest to John H. Ruckman, local owner of a sawmill, in order to payto have the machine patented.

Gibbs could whittleand

Willcox And Gibbs Serial Numbers