Sewing machine

“ While researching the history of the invention and the development of the sewing machine, many items of related interest concerning the machine’s economic value came to light. The manufacture of the machines was in itself a boost to the economy of the emerging “industrial United States,” as was the production of attachments for specialized stitching and the need for new types of needles and thread. Moreover, the machine’s ability to speed up production permitted it to permeate the entire field of products manufactured by any type of stitching, from umbrellas to tents. ”

“ Figure 1.—After almost a century of attempts to invent a machine that would sew, the practical sewing machine evolved in the mid-19th century. This elegant, carpeted salesroom of the 1870s, with fashionable ladies and gentlemen scanning the latest model sewing machines, reflects the pinnacle reached by the new industry in just a few decades. This example, one of many of its type, is the Wheeler and Wilson sewing-machine offices and salesroom, No. 44 Fourteenth Street, Union Square, New York City. ”

“ Figure 51.—One of the early commercial manufacturers of the Palmer patent was Madame Demorest, a New York dressmaker. She advertised her Fairy sewing machine in Godey’s Lady’s Book, vol. 66, 1863, and stated: “In the first place it will attract attention from its diminutive, fairy-like size, and with the same ease with which it can be carried, an important matter to a seamstress or dressmaker employed from house to house ... What no other sewing machine attempts to do, it runs, and does not stitch, it sews the more delicate materials an ordinary sewing machine cuts or draws....” ”

“ The use of sewing machines in all types of manufacturing that required stitching of any type continued to grow each year. While the principal purpose for which they were utilized continued to be the manufacture of clothing items, by the year 1900 they were also used for awnings, tents, and sails ”

“ Different Types of Sewing Machines. There are two types of sewing machines in use—the chain-stitch and the lock-stitch. Sewing machines are made to run by hand, foot or mechanical motor power. This makes no difference in design or care of the stitching part of the machine. ”

“ Figure 66.—Jones “electro motor” patent model of 1871 on a Bartlett sewing machine. (Smithsonian photo P-63104.)
Sewing-machine improvements have been made from time to time. Like other mechanical items the machine has become increasingly automatic, but the basic principles remain the same. One of the more recent developments, patented [84] in 1933 by Valentine Naftali et al., is for a manufacturing machine that imitates hand stitching. This machine uses a two-pointed “floating needle” that is passed completely through the fabric—the very idea that was attempted over one hundred years ago. ”

“ The sewing machine has taken away much of the drudgery of home sewing, but its use does not lessen the need of skill in hand work. No machine can finish ends of belts, collars, sew on trimmings, fastenings, and like work and the finish has much to do with the general appearance of a garment. ”

“ The method of manufacturing machine needles did not differ appreciably from the method used in making the common sewing needle, but the latter had never become an important permanent industry in the United States. Since the manufacture of practical sewing machines was essentially an American development and the eye-pointed needle a vital component of the machine, it followed that the manufacture of needles would also develop here. ”

“ These models form a valuable part of the record of the invention, supplementing the drawings and the text of the written specifications. The early sewing-machine models were made to order, either by the inventor or a commissioned model maker. As soon as sewing machines were produced commercially, it was less expensive for the patentee to use a commercial machine of the period, to which he added his change or improvement, than to have a complete model constructed to order. ”

“ He considered the problem of sewing leather, analyzing the steps required to make the saddler’s stitch, one popularly used in boots and shoes. He concluded that a sewing machine to do this type of work must first perforate the leather, then draw the threads through the holes, and finally secure the stitches by pulling the threads tight. The machine Corliss invented (fig. 13) was of the same general type as Greenough’s, except that two two-pointed needles were required to make the saddler’s stitch. This stitch was composed of two running stitches made simultaneously, one from each side. ”

“ No radical changes in the principle or mode of operation of sewing machines have been made in the last twenty-five years; but the efforts of inventors have been directed to improve the previously established types, and to devise attachments of all kinds, by the aid of which anything that can be sewed, can be sewed upon a machine. Tucking, ruffling, braiding, cording, hemming, turning, plaiting, gaging, and other attachment devices are numerous. Inventors have rivalled one another in originating new forms of stitches. ”

“ Figure 50.—Although Bean’s and Rodgers’ running-stitch machines, the second and fourth U.S. sewing-machine patents, experienced little commercial success, small manufactured machines based on Aaron Palmer’s patent of May 13, 1862, were popular in the 1860s. The patent model above is a small brass implement with crimping gears that forced the fabric onto an ordinary sewing needle. The full needle was then removed from its position, and the thread was pulled through the fabric by hand. (Smithsonian photo 45524.) ”

“ Figure 29.—Singer’s Perpendicular Action sewing machine, an engraving from Illustrated News, June 25, 1853, which states: “The sewing machine has, within the last two years acquired a wide celebrity, and established its character as one of the most efficient labor saving instruments ever introduced to public notice.... We must not forget to call attention to the fact that this instrument is peculiarly calculated for female operatives. They should never allow its use to be monopolized by men.” ”

“ The requirements for producing a successful, practical sewing machine were a support for the cloth, a needle to carry the thread through the fabric and a combining device to form the stitch, a feeding mechanism to permit one stitch to follow another, tension controls to provide an even delivery of thread, and the related mechanism to insure the precise performance of each operation in its proper sequence. ”

“ The important element in the Hunt invention was an eye-pointed needle working in combination with a shuttle carrying a second thread. Future inventors were thus no longer hampered by the erroneous idea that the sewing machine must imitate the human hands and fingers. ”

“ From 1850 to 1858 the Singer company produced heavy manufacturing-type sewing machines similar to the patent model shown earlier (fig. 28) . The first machine for family use, Singer’s new “Family” sewing machine (fig. 33) was manufactured from 1858-1861. Their second-style family machine was called the “Traverse Shuttle Machine—Letter A;” it was manufactured from 1859 to 1865, when they introduced their third family machine and called it the “New Family” sewing machine. This style machine continued until about 1883 when the “Improved Family” machine appeared. ”

“ The equipment of the workroom should at all times be fully adequate to the demands upon it, and the very smallest of workrooms should have at least: A good sewing machine, capable of performing fine or coarse work; a cutting table approximately 5—0 by 12—0; a work table 5—0 by 9—0; a pressing table 3—0 by 6—0; a draping board, a test pole, a steamer and a cupboard for finished work.
As to the sewing machine, almost any reliable make of machine will do the necessary sewing for ordinary drapery work. ”

“ Darning, satisfactory for some purposes, may be done quickly on a double thread sewing machine. It is best done in an embroidery ring, first drawing the edges together. Loosen the tension on the presser foot, use fine thread with light tension. Sew back and forth, first along the warp threads and then at right angles along the woof threads. The machine will be sewing backwards part of the time, but if the pressure is light, there will be no difficulty. For large holes, paper may be placed underneath. ”

“ The locking of the needle thread with the bobbin thread was accomplished, not by driving a shuttle through the loop of the needle thread, but by passing that loop under the bobbin. The driving shaft carried the circular rotary hook, one of the sewing machine’s most beautiful contrivances. The success of the machine is indicated in an article that appeared in the June 1853 issue of Scientific American:
There are 300 of these machines now in operation in various parts of the country, and the work which they can perform cannot be surpassed.... ”

“ Figure 89.—Wilson sewing machine, late 1860s to early 1870s. In addition to the Buckeye (see fig. 77) , W. G. Wilson manufactured several other styles of sewing machines. This one, a combination of the varying styles of the earlier pillar machine has even duplicated the general style of the spool holder patented by Folsom. The pillar is not striated, but the machine does repeat the claw feet of the Atwater and Monitor machines. Wilson machines are usually marked “Wilson Sewing Mach. Manuf’g Co. Cleveland, Ohio, Ketchum’s Patent April 28, 1863.” ”

“ Another industry that was aided by the new invention was that of shoe manufacture. Although the earliest sewing-machine patents in the United States reflect the inventors’ efforts to solve the difficult task of leather stitching, and, although machines were used to a limited extent in stitching some parts of [Pg 60] the shoe in the early and mid-1850s, it was not until 1858 that a machine was invented that could stitch the sole to the inner sole and to the upper part of the shoe. ”

“ Lacing Machines.—The Singer Sewing Machine Company brought out a machine some years ago for lacing cards, and it performs its work very well, though many object to it, as it stitches a lacing tape along the cards, instead of lacing them in the usual way. The machine is a 3-or 4-head sewing machine, according as three or four rows of lacing are to be used on the cards. ”

“ This machine will sew five yards of seam every minute, fastening together evenly and strongly ten yards of carpet, and entirely dispensing with all hand labor in this roughest and most trying of all fabrics.
Probably no organized piece of machinery has ever been so systematically exploited, so thoroughly advertised, so persistently canvassed, and so extensively sold as the sewing machine. ”

“ Its superiority over hand labor is therefore so slight that it is doubtful whether such a sewing machine could ever have competed with, much less replaced, hand work. But it has one great merit. The needle mechanism is capable of being re-duplicated almost without limit, and the movement of the work which is necessary to direct the stitches for one needle will serve equally well for any number of needles working parallel to it. Hence the machine that would have failed as a sewing machine has survived and proved useful as an embroidery machine. ”

“ There is to-day a great variety of sewing machines on the market, standard machines for ordinary work, and special machines for numerous special applications. It is said that one concern alone manufactures over four hundred different varieties of sewing machines.
One of the most important and revolutionary of the applications of the sewing machine is for making shoes. ”

“ Many improvements in the sewing machines are due to women, as for instance: an aid for the stretching of sails and heavy stuffs; an apparatus to wind up the thread while the machine is in motion; an improvement for the sewing of leather, etc. The last of these inventions was made by a woman who for years kept a saddle and harness shop in New York. ”

“ We found some amusement, however, for the family had just received in a box-case a sewing-machine—a real English sewing-machine. A "traveller" had been round even to this sequestered spot, possessed of sufficient eloquence to persuade the farmer to buy his goods, and it certainly did seem remarkable that in such a primitive homestead, with its spinning-wheel and hand-loom in one corner, a sewing machine and a new American clock should stand in the other. ”

“ Your seams will not hold if the stitch is not perfect. Try your machine stitch on a double piece of cloth. Stitch on the bias and the straight. Does the stitch look the same on both sides? If not, have your leader adjust the tension while you watch to see how she does it.
For a review of what you learned about the sewing machine in your other projects, practice sewing on a sample of your fabric until you get the feel of the machine. When you can run the machine smoothly, make one of the following articles for practice—scarf, draw-string bag, apron, or swimming robe. ”

“ That the invention described in the second claim is merely the described apparatus for marking a line on the surface of cloth or other material sewed on a sewing-machine, by means of a pencil or similar article pressed upon the surface of the cloth at the time the needle perforates the same, for the purpose and in the manner and the means described, excluding the means by which the patented apparatus is attached to a sewing-machine. ”