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Helen Blanchard Biography

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BLANCHARD, Helen Augusta, a distinguished inventor. She was born at Portland, Maine. Her father was Nathaniel Blanchard, one of the most widely known ship-owners in America. Miss Blanchard's inventions pertain largely to the improvement and efficiency of sewing-machines, and have ranked among the most remarkable mechanical contrivances of the age. Her first Invention was the over-seam of the long stitch in 1873. In 1880 she invented the sewing and trimming seam, and in the same year the zigzag stitch for hats. In 1882 she produced a crocheting machine, which was crowned with signal success. She has recently invented and exploited the new Blanchard machine for hat-lining, and is now engaged in perfecting the new over-seam, which will be a wonderful production, Among many other remarkable inventions, special mention may be made of the self-taking needle, and a surgical needle.

Thomas William Herringshaw, Herringshaw's Encyclopedia of American Biography of the Nineteenth Century (Chicago: American Publishers' Association, 1901) II.