A beguiling page from the August, 1857 issue of The Inventor, a New York- based periodical which, as the title suggests, featured inventors and their creations. This particular invention is a sewing machine designed by Solomon B. Ellithorp, who was granted a patent for his sewing machine design earlier that year. (The patent was granted for the motion of the needles, not the squirrel-iness of the machine.) Ellithorp wrote in his application that his machine could be produced at far lower cost than other machines available. Why a squirrel, you ask? The Inventor notes that the squirrel is “an animal that is selected as a type of provident care and forethought, for its habits of frugality and for making provision for seasons of scarcity and want in times of plenty”. We regret to inform you that this machine was never produced, at least not on a large scale, so we’ll just have to treasure the image.