Today in History: September 10

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

U.S. Patent No. 4750 was awarded 170 years ago today to Elias Howe for his “Improvement in sewing-machines.” It is the first U.S. patent for a sewing machine that employs the lockstitch method, and it is the first patent for a machine that is recognizable to anyone who has used a modern sewing machine all these years later: it placed the eye of the needle at the point, which was an ingenious innovation over the equipment that people had been using by hand for centuries, with the eye at the back of the needle; and it offered an guide and an automatic feed.

Howe was not the inventor of the sewing machine concept itself, but he was the inventor of the modern sewing machine, a device that revolutionized several industries. An early model is in the photo at top.

Howe spent many years defending his invention and his patent in the courts: He had almost no success selling his version of the sewing machine, but Isaac Singer manufactured a copy of Howe’s invention in the 1850s and sold many of them under the Singer name. (The only real difference was the name on the machine: Singer placed the word “Singer” where Howe had located his own name.) Howe eventually won royalties from Singer and recognition as the modern sewing machine’s inventor.
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Enjoy Every Sandwich

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

Cemeteries are cram-packed full with people who had other plans that day. Reservations for dinner, a movie ticket in the pocket. A refrigerator with new groceries. A sink with dirty dishes.

We all know this deep down, but the occasional reminders can nonetheless surprise. “Always wear clean underwear,” a clichéd cartoon version of a mother tells a clichéd cartoon version of ourselves in a clichéd cartoon version of a conversation that never happens in real life. But the end comes in a moment, and it is always dramatic, even when it is mundane.

(I suppose it is never mundane for the person who experiences it, but I have not yet been there, and no one who has had the end moment has made a verifiable report about it. Tsk-tsk. Where are their priorities?)
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Today in History: September 9

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

“Had Mao died in 1956, his achievements would have been immortal. Had he died in 1966, he would still have been a great man but flawed. But he died in 1976. Alas, what can one say?”—a quote attributed toChen Yun

With his death 40 years ago today, Mao Zedong’s three decades in power in China came to an end. He was 82, had cardiopulmonary issues and probably had ALS along with Parkinson’s. His final appearance in public had come in May 1976. In photos from the event, a meeting with Pakistan’s leader, Mao appears already mummified. (His preserved body has been on public display in a glass coffin since 1976.)

The fact that Mao Zedong existed was one that dominated life in his nation from the 1930s until his death, when he joined the 50 million individual lives he sent to 50 million individual deaths. Theirs were the lives worth mourning.
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