304 THE UTOPIAN COMMUNIST
cessory and other improvements for sewing machines dated from
the day when he was working by the side of his wife, discoursing
on the problems of the world in general and on his lack of funds
for astronomical researches in particular. According to his own
story, at that point in the conversation his wife suggested that he
turn to something more practical and work on inventions more
directly related to improving their precarious financial status. As
one pictures her at work in the humble Weitling home making
buttonholes by hand, one easily can imagine what prompted the
hard-working, hard-pressed wife and mother to make so pointed
a suggestion, and understand her efforts to shake her husband out
of his intellectual labors and bring him back from flights of fancy
into stellar space to something more remunerative for the family
exchequer.
It probably took little persuasion to turn Weitling's mind in
the direction of mechanical inventions, for he always was deeply
interested in such things. He had published many scientific articles
in Die Republik der Arbeiter and as editor had been especially
interested in such problems as the use of carbon dioxide instead
of steam to propel engines, perpetual motion, color daguerreo
types, smoke consumers, the origin of Bock beer, man's conquest
of the air, and the eradication of disease.
The New York Tribune of January 18, 1854, called attention
to the "soulless seamstress, the Sewing Machine" on display in a
show window on Broadway "in the midst of a glory of gaslight."
The battle between the inventors of this revolutionary machine
was violent and long. It was frequently aired in paid advertise
ments in the newspapers in which Howe and Singer, two of the
rival inventors, charged each other with wholesale patent infringe
ments and frauds. Howe once sued Greeley for libel because he
had published an advertisement paid for by Singer in the Tribune.
Elias Howe, Jr., J. M. Singer, A. B. Wilson, Otis Avery, and
several others in the United States and in France who claimed
credit for the invention carried on their legal battle for many
years.