Part 19 (1/2)

[91] Willianall, _Textile Industries of the United States_ (Caraphical Sketches

BARTHELEMY THIMONNIER

The firstmachine into practical operation, Barthelee

His father, a textile dyer of Lyon, left that city in 1793 as a result of the Revolution and journeyed with his faust of that year

The fa Thiin studies at the Seminaire de Saint-Jean at Lyons, he soon was forced to leave school for financial reasons and return to his ho trade and by 1813 was fairly well established in his own shop

At that time many of the town's inhabitants eavers and almost every house possessed one or two looms The noise of the shuttle echoed from these family workshops Thimonnier noted the relatively small amount of ti task of sewing a gar the needle in and out for each stitch of each sea a , another of the town's occupations supplied hie industry produced a type of embroidery work called _point de chainette_, in which a needle with a small hook was used to form the chainstitch, a popular type of decorative stitch long used in countries all over the world It was Thimonnier's plan to use this type of hooked needle and produce the stitch byit both as a decorative stitch and a sea one

In 1825 Thimonnier moved to St Etienne, where he beca norant of any of the principles of lecting his tailoring business to the extent that neighbors looked upon him as peculiar, if not crazy By 1829 he had not onlyhis dream to realization, but also had made the acquaintance of the man who helped him to success Ferrand, of l'Ecole des Mines of Saint-Etienne, became interested in the h his trials and disappointments In 1830 Thimonnier received a patent on his machine, which produced the chainstitch by means of a needle shaped like a sure 133--BARTHELEMY THIMONNIER, 1793-1857 Fro Machine Advance_, November 15, 1880

(Sether with Ferrand and a M Beaunier, made attempts to introduce his hty of Thi in a shop in Paris But the fears of the tailors could not be quieted The norant and infuriateddevices such as the Jacquard attach jenny Thimonnier was forced to flee to his home in St Etienne, once nin, an engineer from Villefranche-sur-Saone became interested in Thiain with financial backing In 1845 under the nanin the patent of 1830 was renewed, and under it they organized the first French sewing-machine company The machines they manufactured could produce 200 stitches per minute

The Revolution of 1848 curtailed thehis unpleasant experience in 1841, decided to go to England with Magnin, where, on February 8, 1848, they received the English patent for his chainstitch ranted United States patent 7,622 on Septees over his French machine of 1830, but by this time other inventors had joined the field withmust have been Thimonnier's invention) in the Crystal Palace Exhibition in London in 1850, but because it was late in arriving it was overlooked by the judges and not even considered in the competition Thimonnier died in poverty at Amplepuis on July 5, 1857

WALTER HUNT

Walter Hunt was born near Martinsburg, New York, on July 29, 1796

Although little is known of Hunt's early childhood, we do learn from the author of his obituary, which appeared in _Scientific American_, July 9, 1860, that even as a child he was more interested in people and what he could do for them than in what he could do to insure his oelfare He is said to have devoted his life to his friends, frequently giving away his last cent when he did not have enough to provide for hiular business other than the occupation of inventor His interests were numerous and varied He received his first patent on June 26, 1826, for athe next 33 years he patented 26 ideas In addition he sold or dropped several h the years he also received patents for a variety of things including a knife sharpener, heating stove, ice boat, nail machine, inkwell, fountain pen, safety pin, bottle stopper, sewing machine (1854), paper collars, and a reversible ure 134--WALTER HUNT, 1796-1860 Frorandson, C N Hunt (Smithsonian photo 32066-A)]

ELIAS HOWE, JR

Elias Howe, Jr, was born on his father's farm in Spencer, Massachusetts, on July 9, 1819 This was one of those barren New England farenuity was necessary to secure a living The elder Howe supplerist cards for the fast-growing cotton industry of New England Elias Jr's earliest recollections were of the latter He worked with his brothers and sisters sticking wire teeth into strips of leather to ood at this, his fa farmer (Children were leased in those days; they received their board and keep in exchange for chores they would perform) After a few years, Elias returned home and worked in his father's ainst the wishes of his family, he went to Lowell, Massachusetts Here, he obtained a learner's place in amachinery was made and repaired

In 1837, when a financial panic hit the country, Howe lost his job He then decided to go to Boston, and thispoint in his career In Boston he met Ari Davis, a maker of an to work in Davis' shop, a place to which inventors often came to ask advice about their ideas Davis sometier--he is said to have been one of the noisiestat amachine to the shop to seek Davis' advice ”Why are you wasting your tithat will pay Make a sewing machine” ”It can't be done,” was the reply ”Can't be done?” shouted Davis, ”Don't tellmachine myself” ”If you do,” interrupted the capitalist, ”I can make an independent fortune for you” Davis, like most men of many words, often talked of more than he planned to do He never atte machine

But the loud voices interested Hoho, it is said, deterfor such a deed A kind of lameness since birth had made physical tasks painful for Howe, and he perhaps felt that this would offer an opportunity to beco on a journeyman machinist's pay of 9 a week, Howe's health worsened and by 1843 was so bad that he had to stop work for days at a ti to ht of his wife toiling at her stitches together with the pressure of poverty that recalled to Howe his earlier interest in a machine to sew He decided tohis wife for hours at a time, he tried to visualize a machine that would duplicate the motions of the ar an eye-pointed needle in combination with a shuttle to form a stitch It is possible that, as some authors state, the solution appeared to him in a dream, a ested that he eneral similarity in the two, not only in the combination of eye-pointed needle and shuttle but in the overhanging ar the idea, whatever his inspiration, Howe deter model of his machine

Elias' father, who had then started a factory for splitting palave hiarret of the factory Elias e Soon after his arrival, unfortunately, the building burned down, and Howe despaired of finding a place to work He had a friend, however, in George Fisher, who had just come into a small inheritance, and Howe persuaded him to enter into partnershi+p with hireed to board Howe and his family, which now included two children, while Howe coreed to supply 500 for e for a half interest in a patent if one was obtained