Thomas Crane and N. F. Hopkins Market the Crane Knitter, 1867-1876

Chronicle of the Early American Industries Association, Inc., The, Sep 2004 by Candee, Richard M

The inventor assigned a 25 percent interest in each of these new patents to three Ft. Atkinson store keepers and merchants: George R Marston, N. F. Hopkins, and J. Z. Merriam, with whom, as early as January 10, IHOO, he had a partnership to fund the development of this machine. By July IHOT, the mercantile agent for Dun's credit agency called this group "Gco. P. Marston & Co . . . Mfrs. [ofj Knitting Machines." Marston's worth was estimated at $30,000 but the other partners, he wrote, "are not so well known but it is understood a firm has been formed under the above style." Hy September 186T, the firm had been renamed the Crane Knitting Machine Company and in December was considered "[g]rowing into a l[ar]g[c] Institution," with its own capital of $!20,000.

The Crane Knitter came in two models: a plain model that attached to a common table sold for $60 and one with iron legs and a fancy black-walnut case into which the machine could be folded cost $65. While a handful of the ornamental table models have survived, the less expensive model has not yet been found. Indeed, it seems that perhaps the great majority of the 6,33 Crane Knitters ever built by this company (from 1867 to early 1874) were housed in their sewing-machine-like eases.

On January 31, 1871, the company was said to have a capital of "$,'30,000 all paid up" and was "manufacturing a splendid machine & doing a most excellent business]." Then in mid-July 1871, the four partners formed a stock company and transferred their individual patent rights to the newly incorporated Crane Knitting Machine Company The company printed a thirty-seven-page instruction manual (Figure l) and began a new set of business accounts that show that 1,99 of Crane's flat knitters had been built before July 1 87 1 (when the new corporate ledger begins). Between July 1871 and 1873, this new firm, which eventually became known as the Fbundry & Machine Co., paid royalties on 336 more machines running as high as serial number 633 before production ended.

Company ledgers also record thirty-nine names of those agents and others who bought machines before July 22, 1871, ranging from an outstanding balance of $859 with F. F. Hilder in Chicago; $786 with Sheldon & Griffith of Lafayette, Indiana; $441 with sewing machine agents J. Q. & G. W Adams in Boston; $208 in account with A. C. Van Epps in Binghamton, New York; $176 with A. B. Felt & Company in Philadelphia; and even a $343 balance with one M. C. Ellis in Marysville, California. The ledgers also show smaller purchases in the upper Midwest, presumably machines sold to single individuals rather than dealers. But the total sales recorded in the later volumes confirm the company's general practice of selling through sewing machine agents and local shopkeepers throughout the upper Midwest and beyond (Figure 2).

N. F. Hopkins, Agents, and Printed Advertising

Perhaps the most useful aspect of the company records for 1871-73, however, is what they tell of Mr. N. F. Hopkins. One of the three patent assignees-and listed with Geo. P. Marston & Company (perhaps as manager) as early as 1867-Hopkins emerges in the records as the company's traveling salesman, selling and perhaps actually delivering Crane knitting machines. Given the date, name, and buyer's location recorded for each entry, it is clear that Hopkins sent most of the Crane Knitters to agents and dealers whom he met or returned to on a series of long sales trips. In 1871-72 alone, he took four separate journeys by rail (given the distances between recorded orders), a pattern that continued through 1873 (Figure 3).