U.S. #4546h

2011 44¢ Pioneers of American Industrial Design – 

Dave Chapman

Issue Date: June 29, 2011

City: New York, NY

Quantity: 36,000,000

Printed By:  Avery Dennison

Printing Method: Photogravure

Color: multicolored

Within a year after graduating from college as an architect, David Chapman (1909-78) was helping design the Century of Progress Exposition.  It was a promising beginning for what would turn out to be a great career.  The Expo, held in Chicago, was originally planned to run only in 1933, but was so successful it continued in 1934.  

Chapman joined Montgomery Ward as Head of Product Design while still working with the Expo.  He led a staff of 18, which helped design many of the products that fueled the renewal of the retail giant during the 1930s.   

One reason for Montgomery Ward’s turn-around was the streamlined appeal added by Chapman and his team to the products.  This approach was a hallmark of his – he featured a sewing machine with a chrome grill at the first American Society of Industrial Designers exhibition in 1947.  In 1950, Chapman became president of the Society of Industrial Designers.

Chapman opened his own designing firm in 1936, but returned to Wards after two decades to reorganize the Bureau of Design.  He also opened another company focused on long-range planning.  That type of vision helped elevate Chapman to the front ranks of America’s industrial designers.

Birth of Elias Howe

Inventor Elias Howe Jr. was born on July 9, 1819, in Spencer, Massachusetts.  Howe is best remembered for patenting the modern lockstitch sewing machine.

In 1835, Howe became an apprentice in a textile factory in Lowell, Massachusetts.  When the factory closed following the Panic of 1837, he moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts where he worked a mechanic in another textile factory.  In 1838, Howe began an apprenticeship with Ari Davis, who built and repaired chronometers (devices used to measure time) and other instruments.  Davis once told Howe that whoever invented a practical sewing machine would be rich.  So, Howe set about being that man.

Howe didn’t invent the first sewing machine – various forms of mechanized sewing had been used as early as 1790.  Over the years, various inventors created and even patented sewing machines, but none produced a durable enough stitch to replace hand-sewing.  Walter Hunt came close in the early 1830s.  He invented a back-stitch sewing machine, but refused to patent it for fear of the jobs it would take away from seamstresses.

Howe worked on his machine for eight years in his spare time, working out the logistics.  His machine differed from his contemporaries (and laid the groundwork for modern machines) in that he placed the eye near the point of the needle, included a shuttle beneath the cloth to create a durable lock stitch, and had an automatic feed to move the cloth through.  When he demonstrated his machine in 1845, it could make 250 stitches per minute, out-sewing five seamstresses.  However, at $300 (over $10,500 today) it was a tough sell. Howe patented his design the following year, but was a poor businessman and had a string of bad luck – his workshop burned down, and he was swindled out of British royalties.

Sewing machines quickly grew in popularity, and it appeared that other people were using features of his patent on their machines.  In 1854, Howe sued for patent infringement and eventually won.  Two years later, he joined other manufacturers to create the first American patent pool, allowing them to all share the wealth of their creations and avoid going to court.  With this new arrangement, Howe received $5 royalty for every sewing machine sold in the US, amounting to $2 million.  He finally achieved his goal.

In 1851, Howe Patented an “Automatic, Continuous Clothing Closure” – resembling a zipper.  However, he didn’t bother marketing it.  During the Civil War, Howe served on the 17th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry.  However, he was in poor health and was made the regimental postmaster, tasked with riding back and forth to Baltimore with war news.

In his later years, Howe won a gold medal for his sewing machine at the 1867 Paris Exhibition.  That same year he was also awarded France’s Légion d’honneur.  Howe died on October 3, 1867, and was posthumously inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.