GENERAL REPORT OF THE JUDGES OF GROUP XXII. 45 specially adapted for the purpose. Some companies in the business employ several hundred hands, but none of them exhibited their machines. The straw is delivered automatically to the needle by a proper guide. The hat is commenced at the crown or at the brim, and each round or circular layer of braid is presented upon the edge of a layer already stitched. ' The stitch is peculiar as to its formation, and appears but little, if at all, on the outside of the hat, but on the inside the stitch is long. A hat can be sewed into any usual shape automatically. Other special machines in the United States form and sew a great variety of different kinds of trimmings, ruffles, etc., for ladies’ wear, tape trimming, etc. The different machines were considered under various heads, as: quantity and quality of work done at the time, only such work being considered; simplicity of parts and motions; adaptability to different classes of work; quality of workmanship and materials; public estimation; originality as evidenced by history of development; symmetry, etc. Most sewing-machine companies illustrate in their instruction books the mechanical details of their machines. These illustrations are so accessible that it is unnecessary to accompany this report with drawings. The so-called sewing-machine combination was formed in 1856, between the Howe, Singer, Wheeler & Wilson, and Grover & Baker Companies, as a settlement of all pending suits and controversies that already threatened to consume in costs all that each might make. By this compromise Howe was to be paid by the others a royalty of five dollars on each machine sold in the United States. Each company retained the right to make a certain machine. For instance, Wheeler & Wilson were to make a rotary-hook machine and were to move the needle by means of a vibrating arm, and the Singer Company were to make a machine in which the needle-bar should be moved by a rotating shaft in the overhanging arm. Prices were regulated, and all joined to defend the patents owned by each company if infringed by others. But few licenses were granted. By this agreement competition in price was avoided, and thereafter each company aimed to so improve and perfect its own peculiar machine that it would be selected instead of others. T... 5. -V •'j.’