That doesn’t mean there aren’t any books about the invention of the sewing machine, and even if it did, there still might be some trustworthy information available online.
If you happen to have a friend or relative who knows a little about this subject, you could ask them to point you in the right direction. If you don’t, you can ask Wikipedia.
The thing is, like that friend or relative, there’s always the chance that Wikipedia will give you more opinion than fact, or doesn’t know as much as it thinks it does, or is just plain wrong.
I don’t rely on Wikipedia when I need to make sure something is absolutely correct, but I use it all the time when I want to know what people who care about a subject believe to be true about it. Like sewing machines, for instance:
Since I want to know about something that happened more than 150 years ago, I’ll follow the link from the Contents box to the History section:
Again, this section tells me what some folks think the facts are. Often, they’re right — but not always. Anyway, if the History section is helpful to you, then you’ll want to have a look at the bottom of the page to see if it lists other sources.
If it doesn’t, you might have better luck in the Wikipedia entry for a related topic — Isaac Singer, perhaps:
At the bottom of the page, in the References section —
— you’ll see the title and author of a book about Singer and the sewing machine, as well as a link to another online article about him. If that other article makes clear where its information came from, you may have found exactly what you need. If it doesn’t, it might be time to head back to Amazon or your local library.
So, is that it? Is that everything you need to know about looking online for more information on a subject you read about in a book?
Well, I haven’t mentioned Google yet, have I?
There was a Childhood of Famous Americans biography of Elias Howe. If I recall correctly, one of his legs was shorter than the other. (You see how deeply my brain was imprinted in third grade.)
When I come across an item that is craft related, I always google for guilds, groups, blogs, selling sites, etc. related to the item.
If I were you, I would find and interview collectors and collecting guilds and sites of older sewing machines…lots and lots of resources and information. A collector can tell you far more than Google ever can, believe me! Also, many sewers still like to use older machines, even very old ones…it’s a Hot Thing to do…and they can tell you lots as well you’re not going to fine elsewhere.
My little Royal Blue portable typewriter was lost in Internet space, until I started googling for typewriter collectors’ groups, when I quickly located not only photos of it but approximate collector values for my $3 purchase and a nice history of it. I also got to share enthusiasm with a genuine collector online..really fun to do as well.
[…] But what if you still haven’t found a likely source for the answers to your questions? Hang on — I’m getting to that. […]