John Ireland Howe (July 20, 1793 – September 10, 1876) was an inventor and manufacturer.
"John Ireland Howe failed at creating a rubber compound that could be used for practical purposes, but he did succeed at another enterprise: inventing a machine to mass-produce pins." He received a patent in 1832. Pins had been difficult to manufacture and expensive before; the machine made the common pin common.
He was born in Ridgefield, Connecticut in 1793. His home on Caroline Street in Derby, Connecticut is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as John I. Howe House. He retired from manufacturing in 1865 and died in 1876 and his grave is in Oak Cliff Cemetery in Derby.
The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. displays his pin-making machine. The Smithsonian Institution in fact has a model of his 1841 machine that is about 1 square foot in size, and it is unclear whether it could be used to actually make pins. The model supported his patent application which eventually received U.S. Patent Number 2,013 on March 24, 1841.