W. F. THOMAS & Co.

W.F. THOMAS & CO.

1855 - 1884

Howe finished a second machine and was awarded U.S. patent 4750 on September 10, 1846. George Fisher, his loyal investor, was growing frustrated after funding the project for more than two years without any returns. Fisher had now spent $2000, and declares, "I had lost all confidence in the machine's paying anything."

With nowhere else to go but the curb, Elias went back to his father's house with his family. In October he induced his father to send Amasa Howe across the Atlantic to England hoping to find a more willing potential market. Amasa met William Thomas of Cheapside, a manufacturer employing 500 persons at making corsets, umbrellas, valises, shoes, etc.

Amasa Howe offered him the machine. It did not take him long to decide. Thomas saw it was the crude beginning of a vast enterprise. For 250 pounds, $1250, Amasa guilelessly sold him the machine and the right to use all he wanted and to patent it in England, paying three pounds royalty. He never paid at all. Thomas made a million dollars by 1867, for he had induced Amasa to beguile Elias across the sea in order to adapt the machine to corsets. February 5, 1847, Elias, pressed financially, sailed for England, to be joined by his wife and three children, whose passage Thomas paid.

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William Frederick Thomas ( the son of William Thomas ) produced a range of sewing patent from 1853.

...Thomas' machines became established in 1855 and then Mr. Thomas, believing that his long buried patent of Howe, of 1846 could be used as a Master patent, commenced a series of legal efforts intended to crush out the budding English trade, and convert this country into a close preserve for his exclusive sport...

William Newton Wilson (1892)

Hull Advertiser and Exchange Gazette - 6 January 1855

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Thomas sewing machines were manufactured in Birmingham by Charles & William Harwood, who were die and press-tool makers at 54 New Summer Street. As trade increased premises were acquired in Lower Loveday Street, which became know as the Britannia Foundry.

During the 1870's sewing machine making was a competitive trade, a lengthy list of sewing machine makers, although a fair proportion were agents and suppliers for machines produced elsewhere and works closures and bankruptcies were regular events within the industry.

Charles and William Hardwood faced similar problems. They transferred their business to 101 Newtown Row, where Thomas machines were continued to be made but which quickly in financial trouble and suffered liquidation in 1875.

The factory was then taken over by William Frederick Thomas & Co., who continued sewing machine making there until about 1884.

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