The famous National Two-Spool sewing machine was invented by American inventor Richard K. Hohmann. He designed the unique mechanism in the early 1900s and secured the patent for it in 1911. The Western Electric sewing machine was not made by Western Electric, but by the National Sewing Machine Company, Belvidere, Ill., which put Western Electric decals on one of their models. There were several versions with minor differences between them that helps with that somewhat: type of thread-guide, type of canister (there were 3 different versions) and type of bobbin plate (one slide out and one pivoted) Instead of requiring you to wind small, specialized bobbins, the National Two-Spool used an identical standard wooden spool of thread in both the top and bottom of the machine. You could simply place a fresh, full spool directly into the bobbin case.