QUESTION: Recently, I was admiring my grandmother’s sewing machine. I think it was probably her mother’s. Amazing that a mass-produced tool like this was not only useful, but in the early days, beautiful, too. Who invented the sewing machine and when?
ANSWER: Most people probably think that Isaac Merritt Singer invented the sewing machine, but actually there were many inventors who all invented their own versions of this iconic machine.
Historians consider Englishman Thomas Saint as the inventor of the first sewing machine in 1790. While it wasn’t as robust as today’s industrial machines, it did improve the efficiency of making leather clothing, as well as saddles and bridles. but it was also capable of working with canvas, making it useful for sewing ship sails. Although his machine was very advanced for the era, the concept would need steady improvement over the coming decades before it was practical enough to enter into wide use.
A skilled cabinetmaker, Saint included many practical features on his machine, such as an overhanging arm, a feed mechanism for shorter pieces of leather, a vertical needle bar, and a looper. His goal was to reduce the amount of hand-stitching on leather garments.
Saint’s sewing machine used the chain stitch method, in which the machine uses a single thread to make simple stitches in the fabric. A stitching awl would have pierced the material, and a forked-point rod would have carried the thread through the hole, where it would have been hooked underneath and moved to the next stitching place, after which the cycle would be repeated, thereby locking the stitch in place.
In 1804, Thomas Stone and James Henderson built their own version of the sewing machine. And John Duncan constructed one for embroidering material.
An Austrian tailor, Josef Madersperger, began developing his first sewing machine in 1807 and presented his first working machine publicly in 1814. Having received financial support from the Austrian Government, he worked on the development of his machine until 1839, when he built a machine imitating the weaving process using the chain stitch.
Thimonnier, a French tailor, invented the first practical and widely used sewing machine in 1829. His machine sewed straight seams using a chain stitch like Saint's model had. He constructed his sewing machine of wood and used a barbed needle which passed downward through the cloth to grab the thread and pull it up to form a loop to be locked by the next loop. In 1830, Thimonnier signed a contract with Auguste Ferrand, a mining engineer, who made the required drawings and submitted a patent application. He received the patent for his machine on July 17, 1830, and in the same year, he and his partners opened the first machine-based clothing manufacturing company in the world to create army uniforms for the French Army. Unfortunately, their factory burned down—reportedly by workers fearful of losing their livelihood, following the issuing of the patent.
In 1832, Walter Hunt invented the first American lockstitch sewing machine. His machine used a needle with the eye and the point on the same end carrying the upper thread, and a falling shuttle carrying the lower thread. The curved needle moved through the fabric horizontally, leaving the loop as it withdrew. The shuttle passed through the loop, interlocking the thread. The feed was unreliable, requiring the machine to be stopped frequently and reset up. Hunt eventually lost interest in his machine and sold individual machines without at first patenting his invention. In 1854, he finally applied for a patent.
However, John Greenough beat Hunt to it by patenting his sewing machine, the first one in the United States. His British partners, Newton and Archibold, had introduced the eye-pointed needle and the use of two pressing surfaces to keep the pieces of fabric in position, in 1841.
The first machine to combine all the disparate elements of the previous half-century of innovation into the modern sewing machine was the device built by English inventor John Fisher in 1844, a little earlier than the very similar machines built by Isaac Merritt Singer in 1851, and the lesser known Elias Howe, in 1845. However, due to the botched filing of Fisher's patent at the Patent Office, he didn’t receive recognition for the modern sewing machine because of legal disputes of priority with Singer, enabling Singer to reap the benefits of the patent.
Elias Howe, born in Spencer, Massachusetts, created his sewing machine in 1845, using a similar method to Fisher's except that the fabric was held vertically. An important improvement on his machine was to have the needle running away from the point, starting from the eye. After a lengthy stay in England trying to attract interest in his machine, he returned to America to find various people infringing his patent, among them Isaac Merritt Singer. He eventually won a case for patent infringement in 1854 and was awarded the right to claim royalties from the manufacturers using ideas covered by his patent, including Singer.
Singer had seen a rotary sewing machine being repaired in a Boston shop. As an engineer, he thought it was clumsy and decided to design a better one. The machine he devised used a falling shuttle instead of a rotary one; the needle was mounted vertically and included a presser foot to hold the cloth in place. It had a fixed arm to hold the needle and included a basic tension system. This machine combined elements of Thimonnier, Hunt and Howe's machines. Singer received a patent for his sewing machine in 1851. He adapted the foot treadle, used since the Middle Ages, to convert reciprocating to rotary motion, to drive his machine, leaving the both hands of the user free.
When Howe learned of Singer's machine he also took him to court, where Howe won, forcing Singer to pay a lump sum for all machines he had already produced. Singer then took out a license under Howe's patent and paid him US$1.15 per machine before entering into a joint partnership with a lawyer named Edward Clark. Together, they created the first hire-purchase arrangement to allow people to purchase their machines through payments over time.
Meanwhile, Allen B. Wilson developed a shuttle that reciprocated in a short arc, an improvement over Singer’s and Howe's machines. However, John Bradshaw had patented a similar device and threatened to sue, so Wilson decided to try a new method. He went into partnership with Nathaniel Wheeler to produce a machine with a rotary hook instead of a shuttle. This was far quieter and smoother than other methods, with the result that the Wheeler & Wilson Company produced more machines in the 1850s and 1860s than any other manufacturer. Wilson also invented the four-motion feed mechanism that’s still used on every sewing machine today. This had a forward, down, back and up motion, which drew the cloth through in an even and smooth motion. Charles Miller patented the first machine to stitch buttonholes. Throughout the 1850s more and more companies tried to sue the others for patent infringement. This triggered the Sewing Machine War.
In 1856, the Sewing Machine Combination was formed, consisting of Singer, Howe, Wheeler, Wilson, and Grover and Baker. These four companies pooled their patents, with the result that all other manufacturers had to obtain a license for $15 per machine. This lasted until 1877 when the last patent expired.
In 1885, Singer patented the Singer Vibrating Shuttle sewing machine, which used Allen B. Wilson's idea for a vibrating shuttle and was better at the lockstitch than the oscillating shuttles of the time. This was perhaps the world's first really practical sewing machine for domestic use. It was in use until rotary shuttle machines finally superseded it in the 20th century.
The Singer Sewing Company developed the first electric machines in 1889. By the end of the First World War, Singer offered hand, treadle and electric machines for sale. At first, the electric machines were standard machines with a motor strapped on the side, but as more homes gained power, they became more popular, and the motor was gradually introduced into the casing.
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