Pushing Pins

A workhouse

John Ireland Howe invented the first practical machine to make straight pins on June 22, 1832. Trained as a doctor, he worked at the New York Almshouse and saw people there trying to make straight pins by hand which required eighteen separate steps. He started to work on a machine that would do the tedious job. Howe's machine has been called, "one of the most ingenious and beautiful pieces of mechanism."

After receiving a patent for his idea for the pin-making machine, Howe secured the backing of some New York businessmen and formed Howe Manufacturing Company.  The company stayed in New York for three years before moving to Derby, Connecticut, the state of Howe's birth. After some struggles, it became one of the largest pin manufacturers at that time. In 1839, the company was producing around 72,000 pins a day, making them readily available to tailors, seamstresses, teachers, and other people who needed them.

Howe built a home on Caroline Street in Derby and retired from manufacturing in 1865. He died in 1876 and was interred in Oak Cliff Cemetery in Derby. His house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. His invention may seem insignificant at first glance, but it wasn't. Just think of all the ways the pin was used over the decades. As a teacher, craftsperson, homemaker, and quilter, I would not have wanted to do without them.

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