Howe was born at Danvers, Massachussets, in 1822, the son of Frederick and Betsey (Dale) Howe. He was a descendant of James Howe, who was admitted freeman at Roxbury, Massachussets, in 1637, and died at Ipswich, May 17, 1702. His father was a blacksmith.
Until he was sixteen years of age, the boy attended the public schools of his home town.
He entered the machine-shop of Silver & Gay at North Chelmsford, Massachussets. Here he learned thoroughly the machinist trade and mechanical drafting. After nine years he went to Windsor, Vt. , and entered the machine-shop of Robbins, Kendall & Lawrence as assistant to Lawrence in machine tool designing. A year later, although but twenty-six years of age, he was made plant superintendent. He remained with this organization six years during which time he invented many useful machine tools of basic design which have come down to the present day practically unchanged.
In 1848 he designed a profiling machine which was used for years in all gun shops in the United States. He also designed a barrel drilling and rifling machine, and in 1849 he and Lawrence built a plain milling machine which was a forerunner of the present well-known Lincoln type miller. Finally, in 1850, he designed the first commercially exploited universal milling machine. At the great exposition held in London, in 1851, Robbins and Lawrence exhibited a set of rifles built on the interchangeable system. As a result, the British Small Arms Commission, after a visit to the Robbins & Lawrence plant, placed a contract with that firm for gun machinery to be installed in the armory at Enfield, near London. For three years, from 1853 to 1856, Howe, as superintendent, had charge of the design and building of much of this equipment.
In 1856 he established an armory of his own at Newark, N. J. , where he engaged in the manufacture of pistols and gun-making machinery. Two years later he transferred his plant to Middletown, Connecticut, and was engaged there in the manufacture of small arms until the outbreak of the Civil War. He then went to Providence, R. I, and became superintendent of the armory of the Providence Tool Company. He continued in this capacity throughout the Civil War and in the course of his service brought the manufacture of Springfield rifles to a high point of efficiency.
In 1865 he was induced by Elias Howe to go to Bridgeport and assist in manufacturing the latter's sewing machine. The Howe sewing-machine plant was leased to him, and he began the construction of another especially designed for quantity production. Howe had just begun to operate this plant with two thousand employees when Elias Howe died and the business became the property of his sons-in-law, the Stockwells. He left the concern shortly thereafter and in 1868, returning to Providence, he joined the Brown & Sharpe Manufacturing Company. He was superintendent of this establishment for five years, during which time he worked with Joseph R. Brown in various mechanical developments and erected the first building on the company's present site. He became a partner in the firm in 1869, and after its incorporation was for two years its president.
He was the inventor of several of the Brown & Sharpe milling machines and developed the company's turret lathes. He assisted Charles H. Wilcox in the development of the Wilcox & Gibbs sewing-machine thread-tension device, and planned the tools for the manufacture of the Wilcox & Gibbs sewing machine, which was then made by the Brown & Sharpe Company. Howe remained with this organization until 1876, and thereafter, until his sudden death, he was in business for himself as a consulting mechanical engineer, In these last years he assisted Charles Goodyear, Jr. , in the development of shoe machinery and engaged in the designing of a unique one-finger typewriter which, however, was never completed.
He married Anna Clafton and was survived by a daughter, with whom he had made his home in Providence during the latter years of his life.
