Sewing Machine Fanatic: A.M. Smith Sewing Machine

I recently rescued this machine from certain death (aka the recycler) at the Seattle Goodwill Outlet.  It's a very sweet machine, and in really good condition considering the age, but alas it has no electrical cord.  The New Home motor is dated 1917 and is incredibly clean (not even a speck of dust that I can see).  The wheel turns smoothly, all the knobs screw in & out easily, and there is no visible rust.  It is has a shuttle instead of a bobbin - and even that is intact.

Now, to track down who A.M. Smith is - and who made the machine...

It seems Albert M. Smith was a bit of an inventor.  He holds a patent for a "Dress Elevator" - these were little decorative buttons that screwed into the fabric at the bottom of a long skirt to hike it up a little.

photo from: www.buttoncountry.com

The patent is dated 1866 - so unless the sewing machine was named after him post-humous, I think it is from the turn of the century.

He also has a patent dated 1865 for an improved sewing machine guide:

read about here in Google Patents

Although, this does throw a wrench in my assessment,  I found this photo of an envelope postmarked 1941 from A.M. Smith  & Co. Ltd,  wholesaler of small wares.  Could be one in the same, assuming that business carried on even after A.M. passed away...

photo from: www.execulink.com/~donslau/Flagcancel.html

And so the mystery continues as to exactly how old my sewing machine is - and who A.M. Smith was.  As for now, I'm going to go with it being from the1890's, because that is my all time favorite era for fashion.