Howe

Machine, from the Year 1750; With a Biog. of Elias
Howe, Jr. (London, 1863). H. M. Towne, Hist. Sketch-
es Relating to Spencer; Mass.t vol. I (1901); D. W.
Howe, Howe Geneals. . . . John Howe of Sudbury
(1929) ; N. Y. Tribune, Oct. 5, 1867.] C. W. M.

HOWE, FREDERICK WEBSTER (Aug.
28, i822-Apr. 25, 1891), machine tool builder,
inventor, was born at Danvers, Mass., the son of
Frederick and Betsey (Dale) Howe. He was a
descendant of James Howe, who was admitted
freeman at Roxbury, Mass., in 1637, and died at
Ipswich, May 17, 1702, His father was a black-
smith. Until he was sixteen years of age, the
boy attended the public schools of his home town
and then entered the machine-shop of Silver &
Gay at North Chelmsford, Mass. Here he learned
thoroughly the machinist trade and mechanical
drafting. After nine years he went to Windsor,
Vt, and entered the machine-shop of Robbins,
Kendall & Lawrence as assistant to Lawrence in
machine tool designing. A year later, although
but twenty-six years of age, he was made plant
superintendent He remained with this organi-
zation six years during which time he invented
many useful machine tools of basic design which
have come down to the present day practically
unchanged. In 1848 he designed a profiling ma-
chine which was used for years in all gun shops
in the United States. He also designed a barrel
drilling and rifling machine, and in 1849 he and
Lawrence built a plain milling machine which
was a forerunner of the present well-known Lin-
coln type miller. Finally, in 1850, he designed
the first commercially exploited universal milling
machine. At the great exposition held in Lon-
don, in 1851, Robbins and Lawrence exhibited a
set of rifles built on the interchangeable system.
As a result, the British Small Arms Commission,
after a visit to the Robbins & Lawrence plant,
placed a contract with that firm for gun ma-
chinery to be installed in the armory at Enfield,
near London. For three years, from 1853 to
1856, Howe, as superintendent, had charge of the
design and building of much of this equipment.
In 1856 he established an armory of his own at
Newark, N". J., where he engaged in the manu-
facture of pistols and gun-making machinery.
Two years later he transferred his plant to Mid-
dletown, Conn., and was engaged there in the
manufacture of small arms until the outbreak of
the Civil War. He then went to Providence, R.
L, and became superintendent of the armory of
the Providence Tool Company. He continued in
this capacity throughout the Civil War and in the
course of his service brought the manufacture of
Springfield rifles to a high point of efficiency. In
1865 he was induced by Elias Howe [#.#.] to go
to Bridgeport and assist in manufacturing the

Howe

latter's sewing machine. The Howe sewing-ma-
chine plant was leased to him, and he began the
construction of another especially designed for
quantity production. Howe had just begun to
operate this plant with two thousand employees
when Elias Howe died and the business became
the property of his sons-in-law, the Stockwells.
He left the concern shortly thereafter and in 1868,
returning to Providence, he joined the Brown &
Sharpe Manufacturing Company. He was su-
perintendent of this establishment for five years,
during which time he worked with Joseph R.
Brown [#.£/.] in various mechanical develop-
ments and erected the first building on the com-
pany's present site. He became a partner in the
firm in 1869, and after its incorporation was for
two years its president. He was the inventor of
several of the Brown & Sharpe milling machines
and developed the company's turret lathes. He
assisted Charles H. Wilcox in the development of
the Wilcox & Gibbs sewing-machine thread-ten-
sion device, and planned the tools for the manu-
facture of the Wilcox & Gibbs sewing machine,
which was then made by the Brown & Sharpe
Company. Howe remained with this organiza-
tion until 1876, and thereafter, until his sudden
death, he was in business for himself as a con-
sulting mechanical engineer. In these last years
he assisted Charles Goodyear, Jr., in the de-
velopment of shoe machinery and engaged in the
designing of a unique one-finger typewriter
which, however, was never completed. He mar-
ried Anna Clafton and was survived by a daugh-
ter, with whom he had made his home in Provi-
dence during the latter years of his life.

[D. W. Howe, Howe Genealogies . . . James of
Ipswich (1929); C. H. Fitch, "Report on the Manu-
factures of Interchangeable Mechanism," in Report on
the Manufactures of the U. $., at the Tenth Census
(1883); dm. Machinist, May 24, 1900; J. W. Roe,
Eng. and Am. Tool Builders (1916); U. S. National
Museum correspondence; Patent Office records; Provi-
dence Sunday Jour., Apr. 26, 1891.] C.W.M.

HOWE, GEORGE (Nov. 6, i8o2-Apr. 15,
1883), clergyman, educator, historian, was born
at Dedham, Mass., the son of William and Mary
(Gould) Howe, and a descendant of Abraham
How who emigrated from Essex, England, and
settled in Roxbury, Mass., about 1637. When
George was born, his father was conducting a
tavern in Dedham, which he had built. Later he
was a cotton-mill superintendent in East Dedham
and in Holmesburg, Pa., whither he took his
family about 1814. Young Howe graduated with
first honor from Middlebury College in 1822, and
from Andover Theological Seminary in 1825,
but continued his studies there as Abbot scholar.
Ordained in 1827, he became Phillips Professor

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