[29] _The Life and Works of George H. Corliss_, privately printed for Mary Corliss by the American Historical Society, 1930. The Corliss family records were turned over to the Baker Library, Harvard University. In a letter addressed to this author by Robert W. Lovett of the Manuscripts Division on August 2, 1954, it was reported that there was a record on their Corliss card to the effect that a model of his sewing machine, received with the collection, was turned over to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; however, Mr. Lovett also stated that from a manuscript memoir of Mr. Corliss that it would seem that he developed only the one machine--the patent model. In a letter dated November 15, 1954, Stanley Backer, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, stated that after extensive inquiries they were unable to locate the model at M.I.T. In 1964, Dr. Robert Woodbury, of M.I.T., turned over to the Smithsonian Institution the official copies of the Corliss drawings and the specifications which had been awarded to the inventor by the Patent Office. It is possible that this may have been the material noted on the Harvard University card as having been transferred to M.I.T. [30] _Sewing Machine Times_ (July 10, 1907), vol. 26, no. 858, p. 1. [31] This is the earliest known patent using the combination of an eye-pointed needle and a shuttle to form a stitch. [32] In embroidery, couching is the technique of laying a decorative thread on the surface of the fabric and stitching it into place with a second less-conspicuous thread. _Chapter Two_ [Illustration: Figure 14.--HOWE'S PREPATENT MODEL of 1845, and the box used by the inventor to carry the machine to England in 1847. (Smithsonian photo 45506-B.)] Elements of a Successful Machine