In spite of his many useful innovative creations he never became wealthy since he sold off most of his patent rights to others at low prices with no future royalties.

[3] The accident event motivated him to come up with a metal bell that was operated with a hammer that could be controlled by one of driver's feet without letting go of the horse reins.

From 1827 to 1830, while earning a living in the real estate field, he invented a fire engine, an improvement for hard coal-burning stoves, the first home knife sharpener,[10] and a restaurant steam table apparatus.

[11] He also invented the precursor of the Winchester repeating rifle[12][13][14] and the forerunner of the American fountain pen as used in the twentieth century.

[15][16][17] Additionally, Hunt invented a flax spinner, an improved oil lamp, artificial stone, the first rotary street sweeping machine,[10][18] mail sorting machinery, velocipedes, and ice plows.

[19][20][21] He also made improvements to guns, cylindro-conoidal bullets,[22] ice-breaking wooden hull boats, paraffin oil candles, velocipedes, machines for making rivets and nails, and self-closing inkwells.

[20][25] He did not realize the significance of many of his inventions when he produced them and sold off most of his patent rights to others for low prices making little for himself in the long run.

[3][27] He developed the first modern feasible operating sewing machine[20] sometime between the years 1835 and 1837[28] at his Amos Street shop that was up a narrow alley in Abingdon Square[29] at the borough of Manhattan in the city of New York.

[32] The uniqueness of this was that it was the initial time an engineer or technician inventor had not imitated a single stitch done by hand and used two interlocking threads at a seam.

[35] Hunt sold one-half the patent rights in 1834 to businessman and blacksmith George A. Arrowsmith who never manufactured it to sell.

[27] This ultimately led to a court case in 1854 when the lockstitch sewing machine concept was applied for by Elias Howe in a patent application.

[50] Hunt acquired public acknowledgement for his invention, however Howe's official patent remained lawful because of the technicality of the timing of the paperwork.

[3] J.R. Chapin pressured Hunt to pay off what was due to him for the drafting work he had done on previous inventions that needed patent drawings for application submissions.

High production of the item came about and at one time there were as many as forty factories making paper collars in the United States.

[58][59] His grave is marked by a small red granite shaft about a hundred feet from Howe's massive bust monument.

[61][62] Many of Hunt's invention ideas are in actual use today and are basically the same device as when he patented them more than a hundred years ago.