Eldredge Sewing Machine Serial Numbers
The Improved Eldredge Rotary Sewing Machine Improved Eldredge Rotary Sewing Machine. I do not know how to determine the age by serial number, sorry. Governor A: Serial No. This machine was made by the National Sewing Machine Company of Belvidere, Illinois which was formed c1891 by the merger of the Eldredge Sewing Machine Company (est.1869). If your sewing machine, accessory, or ephemera has a name on it, this is the place to start. If we don't have a listing for the name, please use the search function to see if there is any mention of it on our site.
Mind master free download. Home of the Sewalot Site By Alex I Askaroff For antique and vintage sewing machines Willcox & Gibbs Sewing Machines A brief history by Alex Askaroff 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. See Alex Askaroff on Youtube Most of us know the name Singer but few are aware of his amazing life story, his rags to riches journey from a little runaway to one of the richest men of his age. The story of Isaac Merritt Singer will blow your mind, his wives and lovers his castles and palaces all built on the back of one of the greatest inventions of the 19th century. For the first time the most complete story of a forgotten giant is brought to you by Alex Askaroff.
Willcox & Gibbs the classic W&G machine circa 1890 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 '19th Century' precision engineering in the world. This is hard to argue with seeing that so many are still working on a daily basis 150 years later.
Their beautiful lines and superb stitching make them a collectors dream. Deep freeze unfreezer for windows 7 free download. Today every collector and enthusiast has at least one W&G in their collection. In my opinion the Willcox & Gibbs chain stitch is 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.
Alex Askaroff Youtube clip on Willcox & Gibbs. James Edward Allen Gibbs 1829-1902 James Edward Allen Gibbs was the son of Richard Gibbs, a Shenandoah farmer from Rockbridge County, Virginia.
He was born three miles as the crow flies from Raphine on 1 August 1829. His mum was Isabella Poague Gibbs from Connecticut. As James grew he worked, like all children in those days, for his father on the farm and in his father's carding business.
Carding was a popular business as wool and cotton had to be disentangled from clumps of fibre into a continuous thread for cloth manufacture by the use of cards which were basic brushes with wire pins that stripped the wool into straight fibres. In 1845 a fire broke out in his father's carding business, which he ran from a mill on the farm, and it completely destroyed everything.
The business ruined, James at the age of 16, decided to leave home and strike out on his own. 
I can just imagine the arguments that happened that year and the sorrow as a family and business was torn apart. Little could they imagine as their son walked away from the farm with all his worldly goods over his shoulder that one day he would own hundreds of acres of Rockbridge and live the life of a lord of the manor.
Over the next few years James tried his hand at what he knew best, the carding business, but each attempt failed to make a living, it was a highly competitive trade with many slave owners undercutting prices. So James tried a bit of work as a carpenter, machinist, millwright and even a bit of surveying until he sliced a chunk out of his own kneecap while clearing pines in West Virginia.
Seven hard years pass in these various trades and travels. Over the winter of 1851-52 James, now 22, is found helping in the construction of a saw and grist mill (grain grinding) for one Colonel S Given in Nicholas County. Here he used his piercing blue eyes and easy manner to good use on the Colonels' daughter.
Catherine Given was smitten and in the late summer of 1852 Catherine and James were married. They went on to have four daughters. No sooner were they a couple than he set of again to Pocahontas County where he took up his old trade of carpentry.