Trivia 11-5-18 Predates the ACW

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Who invented the lockstitch sewing machine?

credit: @grognard

Edit - Welcome to the trivia game, grognard. It is unusual for someone's first appearance in the trivia game to be as the author of a question rather than as the answerer of one, but we're certainly happy to have people submit questions.

Hope you'll come back and participate in the game again.

hoosier
 
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WALTER HUNT. (He also invented the safety pin.)
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I found this:

"The first American lockstitch sewing machine was invented by Walter Hunt in 1832."
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sewing_machine&oldid=866529203

That would fit the headline, as it predates the Civil War. So Walter Hunt would be the inventor, and the connection to the Civil War (although a weak one) might be that Hunt also invented the forerunner of the Winchester repeating rifle.

But even more connection to the Civil War has another inventor of another model of a lockstitch sewing machine, Elias Howe, who was a Cousin of future Union General Nathaniel Banks:

"After mill closings due to the Panic of 1837, he moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to work as a mechanic with carding machinery, apprenticing along with his cousin Nathaniel P. Banks. Beginning in 1838, he apprenticed in the shop of Ari Davis, a master mechanic in Cambridge who specialized in the manufacture and repair of chronometers and other precision instruments.[1] It was in the employ of Davis that Howe seized upon the idea of the sewing machine"
[…]
However, Howe originated significant refinements to the design concepts of his predecessors, and on September 10, 1846, he was awarded the first United States
patent (U.S. Patent 4,750) for a sewing machine using a lockstitch design.

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Elias_Howe&oldid=840605593

So my final answer, considering that we are a site dealing with the Civil War, is: Elias Howe, Cousin of Union General Nathaniel P. Banks.
 
Technically, the original inventor was Walter Hunt. He invented numerous other things, including the safety pin and a forerunner of the repeating Winchester rifle. However, he did not patent his 1830s lockstitch sewing machine invention--allegedly, for fear he would put seamstresses out of work.

Elias Howe, however, did patent his own design in the 1840s. He served in the 17th Connecticut during the war.

Howe and Hunt were engaged in a lawsuit in the 1850s over who was technically the inventor. Ultimately, Hunt was granted precedence, but Howe's patent remained intact. Hunt then patented his own improvements.

I'm assuming Howe is the desired answer because he has a clearer connection to the war, but technically, both men could be credited.

More on the lawsuit between them over who was the first inventor:
http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1070410

Hunt bio:

Howe bios:
https://www.asme.org/engineering-topics/articles/technology-and-society/elias-howe
 
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