page 45 -- Weed Sewing Machine Co., W.F. Brainard & Co., S.K. Montgomery

updated 2 July 2016

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Selected from a Google Search for Hartford Sewing Machines, this quote gives the viewer some great background on the sociological aspects of scrapbooking:

Title	The Scrapbook in American Life
Authors	Susan Tucker, Katherine Ott, Patricia Buckler
Editors	Susan Tucker, Katherine Ott, Patricia Buckler
Edition	illustrated
Publisher	Temple University Press, 2006
ISBN	1592134785, 9781592134786
Length	332 pages, p.99

In the Rochester Directory (via Google Books), an ad touts the superior qualities of a Hartford Sewing Machine:

Title	The Rochester Directory, Volume 35, p.754
Publisher	Sampson & Murdock Company, 1884
Original from	Harvard University
Digitized	Jun 12, 2007

A familiar stag makes an appearance in this Hartford Sewing Machine ad in Outing via Google:

Title	Outing, Volume 3 p.xiii (pagination unreliable)
Published	1884
Original from	the University of California
Digitized	Jan 25, 2008

How a sewing machine works (above)

People bought sewing machines just after the Civil War the way folks bought Apple iPhones in the early 21st century. In the blink of an eye, they were everywhere. Here's a few stats for you from Google Books:

Title	One hundred years' progress of the United States ...: With an appendix entitled Marvels that our grandchildren will see; or, One hundred years' progress in the future ...
Authors	Charles Louis Flint, Charles Francis McCay, John Clark Merriam, Thomas Prentice Kettell, Linus Pierpont Brockett
Contributor	L. Stebbins
Publisher	L. Stebbins, 1871
Original from	the University of Michigan
Digitized	Oct 12, 2007
Length	546 pages, p.429

Over the years, Weed Sewing Machine Company diversified and merged as illustrated in this chart (Google Books):

Title	Colonel Albert Pope and His American Dream Machines: The Life and Times of a Bicycle Tycoon Turned Automotive Pioneer
Author	Stephen B. Goddard
Publisher	McFarland, 2000
ISBN	1476613346, 9781476613345
Length	263 pages, p.238

Through its connection with the Pope Mfg. Co., the Weed Sewing Machine Company got in on the ground floor of the auto industry. Here's a piece of that story from Google Books and Monopoly on Wheels...:

Title	Monopoly on Wheels: Henry Ford and the Selden Automobile Patent Great Lakes books
Author	William Greenleaf
Contributor	David L. Lewis
Edition	revised
Publisher	Wayne State University Press, 2011
ISBN	0814335845, 9780814335840
Length	330 pages, p.59

Scanned from page 53 of my personal copy (also available free online) of the following reference comes this engraving of the Weed Company factory in Hartford CT:

Title	The Great Industries of the United States: Being an Historical Summary of the Origin, Growth, and Perfection of the Chief Industrial Arts of this Country
Contributor	Horace Greeley
Publisher	Burr & Hyde, 1873
Original from	the University of Michigan
Digitized	Mar 13, 2007
Length	1304 pages, p.53

Here's a YouTube video that explains how the Weed sewing machine factory eventually came to manufacture bicycles:

Wikipedia has a fine article on the life and manufacturing adventures of Col. Albert Augustus Pope and the Virtual Steam Car Museum has done extensive research on Pope steam-powered Toledo models to come up with and excellent online exhibit.

According to a brief article appearing in Scientific American v.8 no.19 13 May 1899 p.304-5 the Pope electric auto could be charged in 3 hours on ordinary 110 house current. The range achieved by each charge was approximately 25 miles and

Hard to imagine going just 8 miles per hour or being satisfied with 12. Seems to me I have read somewhere, however, (warning: unsourced reference!) that it was a popular belief at this time that humans might suffer some sort of fatal malady if they ventured forth in a conveyance at more than 25 miles per hour.

For those curious to see what the 1904 Columbia Electric Car looked like, here's the Wikimedia Commons photo of the one on display in the Smithsonian Institution:

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Interested in vintage sewing machines and their trade cards?

Well, then it's time you were introduced to ISMACS and their excellent summary of the subject:

ISMACS International
International Sewing Machine Collectors' Society

19th-Century Sewing Machine Trade Cards

by D.A. Brumleve

"After four-color lithography became available in the mid-1870s, trade cards took on a more significant role in advertising. The color enhanced the cards' decorative value -- and increased the likelihood that a Victorian woman would hold on to them. During the last two decades of the 19th Century, trade cards were enormously popular among dealers and the public alike. Most cards found today date to that time period."

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Another card for the Brainard Co. appears on page 59 of the Earl J. Arnold Advertising Card Collection. At the time of the 1880 census, W.F. Brainard was 31 years old and married to Mary E.

Do you know anything about S.K. Montgomery? If so, please comment below or email me. Thanks!

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