. Bulletin - United States National Museum. Science. Figure 83.—Florence sewing machine. The Florence machine was based on the patents of Leander W. Langdon, whose first patent was obtained in 1855. Langdon sewing machines were manufactured by the inventor for a few years. It was his patent of March 20, 1860, that was the immediate forerunner of the Florence machine, whose name was derived from the city of manufacture, Florence, Massa- chusetts. The Howe royalty records of 1860 listed the Florence Sewing Machine Co. as one that took out a license that year. Langdon's patent of July 14, 1863, w
. Bulletin - United States National Museum. Science. Figure 83.—Florence sewing machine. The Florence machine was based on the patents of Leander W. Langdon, whose first patent was obtained in 1855. Langdon sewing machines were manufactured by the inventor for a few years. It was his patent of March 20, 1860, that was the immediate forerunner of the Florence machine, whose name was derived from the city of manufacture, Florence, Massa- chusetts. The Howe royalty records of 1860 listed the Florence Sewing Machine Co. as one that took out a license that year. Langdon's patent of July 14, 1863, was incorporated into the machines manu- factured after that date; however, the date is always incorrectly stamped ''July 18 ; In 1865, the machine won a silver medal at the Tenth Exhibition of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics As- sociation. Over 100,000 Florence machines were manufac- tured by 1870. About 1880 the company changed the name of the machine to Crown. Improvements led to the name New Crown by 1885. About this time the right to use the name Florence for a sewing machine was purchased by a midwestern firm for an entirely different machine. In 1885 the Florence company began to manufacture lamp stoves and heating stoves and shordy thereafter they discon- tinued the manufacture of sewing machines. Using the serial numbers, Florence machines can be dated approximately as follows: Serial J\ imber Tear Serial Number real 1- -500 1860 82535- -96195 1869 501- -2000 1861 96196- -113855 1870 2001- -8000 1862 113856- -129802 1871 8001- -20000 1863 129803- -145592 1872 20001- -35000 1864 145593- -154555 1873 35001- -50000 1865 154556- -160072 1874 50001—60000 1866 160073 -164964 1875 60001- -70534 1867 164965 -167942 1876 70535- -82534 1868 No record of the number of machines produced each year between 1877 and 1885 is available. The machine shown here, serial number 49131, was manufactured in 1865. It is stamped with the following patent dates: "Oct. 30
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Keywords: ., bookauthorun, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectscience
