[80] The author wishes to acknowledge the valuable help of Mr. Donald Kloster of the Smithsonian Institution's Division of Military History for the preceding four references and related information. [81] Letter of Nov. 4, 1871, to Col. Theo. A. Dodge, USA (Ret.), Boston, from Quartermaster General M. C. Meigs, in the National Archives, Record Group 92, Quartermaster General's Office, Letters Sent, Clothing Supplies, 1871. [82] _Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900_, vol. 10, _Manufactures_, Part 4, Special Reports on Selected Industries (United States Census Office, Washington, D.C., 1902). [83] CHARLES M. KARCH, "Needles: Historical and Descriptive," in _Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900_, vol. 10, _Manufactures_, Part 4, Special Reports on Selected Industries (United States Census Office: Washington, D.C., 1902), pp. 429-432. [84] U.S. patent 1,931,447, issued to Valentine Naftali, Henry Naftali, and Rudolph Naftali, Oct. 17, 1933. The Naftali machines are manufactured by the American Machine and Foundry Company and are called AMF Stitching Machines. [85] See Appendix V, p. 135, "A Brief History of Cotton Thread." [86] _The Story of Cotton Thread_ (New York, The Spool Cotton Company, 1933). [87] J. and P. Coats spool cotton. [88] Willimantic spool cotton. [89] New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky. _Eighth Census, 1860, Manufactures_ (United States Census Office, published by Government Printing Office: Washington, D.C., 1865.) [90] Sewing-machine manufacture in the South was just beginning to blossom when it was curtailed by the outbreak of the Civil War. See Lester sewing machine, figure 109 on page 102. II. American Sewing-Machine Companies of the 19th Century During the latter half of the 19th century, there was a total of two hundred or more sewing-machine companies in the United States. Although a great many manufacturing-type machines were sold, this business was carried on by relatively few companies and most were primarily concerned with the family-type machines. A representative number of these family machines together with information concerning both the company and serial-number dating are found in figures 68 through 132. A great many of the companies were licensed by the "Combination," but, in addition, some companies were constructing machines that did not infringe the patents, other companies infringed the patents but managed to avoid legal action, and there were numerous companies that mushroomed into existence after the "Combination" was dissolved in 1877. Most of the latter were very short-lived. It is difficult to establish the exact dates of some of these companies as many of their records were incomplete or have since disappeared; even a great many of the "Combination" records were lost by fire. A summary of the existing records kept by the "Combination" is given in figure 37.