Description
TRADE CARD - New Home Sewing Machine - ADVERTISING: In the year 1860, Thomas H White, together with William L Grout (1888-1908) were manufacturing chairs at Orange, Massachusetts, and at that time knew nothing about sewing machines. Little sewing-machine factories had sprung up throughout New England, many of them to be closed by the combination controlling basic patents, while others defended law suits brought against them. White saw a good field in the sewing-machine line, and that year he and Grout - with a cash capital of 0 and with the help of three employees and a lathe, a planer and a drill press - started to manufacture machines. It was in January 25, 1882 that the old Gold Medal Sewing Machine company was re-organized and succeeded by the New Home Sewing Machine Company and the first election of officers found J J Schencker as President, Andrew J Clark as Vice-President and William L Grout as Secretary-Treasurer. Clark died October 1882 after which Wheeler became Vice-President. The newly-formed new Home Sewing Machine Company started to produce models known as "Octagon" and "New Home" and three years later came out with the "National" and the "Favorite". The sewing-machine production figures were alleged to be approximately 500 a day by 1884. The New Home company built special machinery for the manufacturing of their own needles and the department grew so rapidly that it wasn't long before needles were manufactured for competitors' machines as well. In January, 1901, a new three-story building, 300 feet by 98 feet was completed, and in the following year another floor was added to enlarge production facilities. By this time, the production of needles reached 20,000 per day. The manufacture of needles in the year 1904 by reason of enlarged quarters and increased machinery, reached a high of 6,296,850 and by 1922 the company was manufacturing about 1,800 different types of needles and their annual production reached 13,000,000. For the years 1906 and 1907, the annual sewing-machine production was approximately 150,000 machines, and employees numbered 743. By 1937 there were over 7,000,000 New Home sewing machines in use. This 2½" x 4" Trade Card offers a pastoral advertising promotion of the "Light-Running NEW HOME - Simplest, Most Popular and Best." The card is in good condition.
