Sewing Machine Invention
History
The origin of the art of hand sewing is over 200,000 years ago. Back then, bones or animal horns were used to make sewing needles and animal sinew was used to make the very first thread. While the 14th century saw the first iron needles, it was only in the 15th century that the first eyed needles were seen.
Charles Weinsenthal acquired the first patent connected to mechanical sewing. This was in the year 1755 and the needle was designed for a machine. The queer part was that the machine was not yet defined or existed and his model was based on a hypothetical potential of a possible machine.
Attempts for improvement:
A complete machine used for sewing was patented by Thomas Saint who was an English inventor and a cabinet maker. This was in the year 1790. Whether or not a working model of his machine was invented is still questioned by many. According to the patent an awl that punches a hole in leather and passes a needle through the hole was created. The suspicion on the patent arises because a later reproduction of the same model based on the patent did not work and failed.
Even though it was neither patented nor did it work well, Balthasar Krems (a German) invented an automatic machine for sewing caps.
Tailor Josef Madersperger, Austrian by blood, also joined the list of people with unsuccessful attempts to make a sewing machine. It was perhaps his undying will and enthusiasm that bought him a patent in 1814.
A machine that emulated hand sewing is how James Henderson and Thomas Stone described their version of a sewing machine. It also received a French patent in the year 1804.
1804 also saw Scott John Duncan’s patent for an embroidery machine which used multiple needles.
Unfortunately, even after granting two patents in the year 1804, it turned out to be quite unsuccessful as both of them failed and were soon erased completely from public memory.
The Americans woke up late and in the year 1818, finally invented their first unsuccessful model of a sewing machine. The credit for the same goes to John Adams Doge and John Knowles.
The breakthrough happened only in the year 1830 by the French tailor Barthelemy Thimonnier who created the first functional sewing machine in the world. Using only one thread and a hooked needle, this machine made the same chain stitch which is also used in embroidery. The success was not easy as the inventor faced opposition from competitive tailors who feared that they would be put out of business due to his invention.
America’s first successful sewing machine was built by Walter Hunt in 1834 who eventually lost his drive to patent it as he feared that the use of his machine would lead to unemployment for many tailors. This is because only straight steams could be sewn by Hunt’s machine.
Even though Hunt never patented his machine, others did not share his view and finally the first American patent was issued to Elias Howe for what he described as a process that used thread from two different sources. This model used a needle with an eye which pushed through the cloth creating a loop on the other side. This mechanism lead to a shuttle on a track, which eventually, slipped the second thread through the loop. This created, what is commonly known as the lock stitch. Unfortunately, Elias Howe faced a few hurdles defending his patent as he did for marketing the same.
- Nikita Gupta
Tags: sewing, sewing machine, sewing machine invention
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