Part 1 (1/2)

The Invention of the Sewing Machine

by Grace Rogers Cooper

_Preface_

It had no instrument panel with push-button controls It was not operated electronically or jet-propelled But toas a space capsule is to their 20th-century descendants It was expensive, but, considering the work it could do and the ti machine became the first widely advertised consu, and revolutionized the ready- industry It also weathered the protests of those who feared the new machine was a threat to their livelihood

The practical sewing enius, but rather the culht, work, trials, failures, and partial successes of a long list of inventors History is too quick to credit one or two et the work that preceded and prodded each man to contribute his share It is no discredit to Howe to state that he _did not invent the sewingmachine was important, and he did patent certain i the way It is for the reader to decide whether it was the turning point

Since the sewing machine has been considered by some as one of the most important inventions of 19th-century America, of equal importance to this story of the invention is the history of the sewing machine's development into a practical, popular coht tolist of more than one hundred and fifty of these 19th-century companies is included in this study Still, the list is probably incomplete Many of the companies remained in business a very short time or kept their activities a secret to avoid payment of royalties to patent holders Evidence of these companies is difficult to find It is hoped that additional inforht as a result of this initial atte of individual machines based on their serial numbers is also a difficult task Individual co the commercial machines in the patent collection, for which we know one li date--the date thethe records that have survived, an estimated date based on the serial number can be established for reatly indebted to the late Dr Frederick Lewton, whose interest in the history of the sewingof information about it for the Smithsonian Institution's Division of Textiles archives and whose out-of-print booklet ”A Servant in the House” pro of this work

I would also like to thank Mr Bogart Tho Coift of an excellent collection of 19th-century sewingment is also made of the cooperation extended by The Henry Ford Museuers Cooper_

_Chapter One_

[Illustration: Figure 1--AFTER ALMOST A CENTURY OF ATTEMPTS TO INVENT A MACHINE THAT WOULD SEW, the practical sewing ant, carpeted salesrooentle machines, reflects the pinnacle reached by the new industry in just a few decades This example, one of -machine offices and salesroom, No 44 Fourteenth Street, Union Square, New York City From _The Daily Graphic_, New York City, December 29, 1874 (Smithsonian photo 48091-A)]

Early Efforts

To 1800

For thousands of years, the only ether had been with a coht be of silk, flax, wool, sinew, or other fibrous material

The needle, whether of bone, silver, bronze, steel, or son--a thin shaft with a point at one end and a hole or eye for receiving the thread at the other end Si 2) with its thread-carrying eye had been an ingenious improvement over the sharp bone, stick, or other object used to pierce a hole through which a lacing then had to be passed[1] In addition to utilitarian stitching for such things as the s, the needle was also used for decorative stitching, commonly called embroidery And it was for this purpose that the needle, the seely perfect tool that defied i and to increase production

One of the forms that the needle took in the process of adaptation was that of the fine steel hook Called an _aguja_ in Spain, the hook was used inthe 17th century after the introduction of chainstitch embroideries frons on a net ground[2]

The stitch and the fine hook to make it were especially adaptable to this work By the 18th century the hook had been reduced to needle size and inserted into a handle, and was used to chainstitch-embroider woven fabrics[3] In France the hook was called a crochet and was sharpened to a point for easy entry into the fabric (fig 3) For stitching, the fabric was held taut on a druht the thread from below the surface and pulled a loop to the top The needle reentered the fabric a stitch-length fro a second loop through the first to which it became enchained This method of embroidery perth of thread

At this time the chainstitch was used exclusively for decorative embroidery, and from the French name for drum--the shape of the frame that held the fabric--the worked fabric came to be called tambour embroidery The crochet[4] or small hooked needle soon became known as a tambour needle

In 1755 a new type of needle was invented for producing embroidery stitches This needle had to pass coh motion) for every stitch The inventor was Charles F Weisenthal, a Gerranted British patent 701 for a two-pointed needle (fig 4) The invention was described in the patent as follows:

Theput into a frame, is to be worked with a needle that has two points, one at the head, and the other point as a coers in the ued that Weisenthal had invented the eye-pointed needle, since he was the first inventor to put a point at the end of the needle having the eye But, since his specifically stated use required the needle to have two points and to be passed coh the fabric, Weisenthal had no intention of utilizing the very ie that the eye-pointed needle provided, that of _not_ requiring the passage of the needle through the fabric as in hand sewing

While no records can be found to establish that Weisenthal's patent was put to any co the inventor's lifetime, the two-pointed needle with eye at -machine inventions

The earliest of the knowndevices produced a chain or tambour stitch, but by an entirely different principle than that used with either needle just described Although the idea was incorporated into a patent, the machine was entirely overlooked for almost a century as the patent itself was classed under wearing apparel It was entitled ”An Entire New Method of Making and Cos, and Other Articles, by Means of Tools and Machines also Invented by Me for that Purpose, and of Certain Compositions of the Nature of japan or Varnish, which will be very advantageous in many useful Applications” This portentously titled British patent 1,764 was issued to an English cabinet with accounts of several processes forvarious varnish compositions, the patent contains descriptions of three separate , or sewing” Though far from practical, the machine incorporated several features co ing arht needle, and a continuous supply of thread from a spool The motion was derived from the rotation of a hand crank on a shaft, which activated cams that produced all the actions of the ure 2--PRIMITIVE NEEDLE Bronze Egyptian (Roman period, 30 BC-AD 642) (Smithsonian photo 1379-A)]