History of the Sewing Machine

History of the Sewing Machine

Before the sewing machine appeared, making clothes was the main occupation of half of the human race. For over 20,000 years, countless hours were spent on making garments and other textiles to fulfill daily needs. The first sewing needles were made of bones and animal horns and the first thread was made of animal sinew (inventors.about.com, 4/16/06). The sewing machine, however, was a remarkable invention that was beneficial to all populations. More critical use of time could be used from the invention of the sewing machine. As early as 1755, the history of the sewing machine derives. From there the rest is history.

In 1755, Charles Weisenthal he took out a patent for a needle to be used for mechanical sewing (sewingweb.com, 4/16/06). There was no mention of a machine to go with this idea yet. Years passed and an English inventor, Thomas Saint was issued the first patent for a complete machine for sewing in 1790. The patent describes an awl that punched a hole in leather and passed a needle through the hole (inventors.about.com, 4/16/06). It was intended for stitching shoes and boots.

In 1810, a German, Balthasar Krems, invented an automatic machine for sewing caps. This machine made an elastic stitch stitch by means of an eye-pointed needle, but he failed to patent his machine (sew2go.com, 4/16/06). In 1804, the use of embroidery came in from the invention of John Duncan of glasgow, Scotland. He devised a machine that used a barbed-eye needle which produced a chain stitch, in which embroidery came in. Duncan did not intend for this machine to be used for making seams, however. In that same year, a French patent was granted to Thomas Stone and James Henderson for a 'machine that emulated hand sewing' (inventors.about.com, 4/16/06). Both of these inventions in 1804 failed and were soon forgotten.

In 1814, the first machine to stitch a seam was invented by Josef Madersperger. Madersperger was a master tailor of Kufstein in the Austrian Tyrol (sew2go.com, 4/16/06). This machine used a double pointed needle to make a simple running stitch. Later on, Madersperger created an improved machine that used a single eye pointed needle and a shuttle. However, the use of feeding for fabric under the needle was unreliable. A very beneficial factor for Madersperger inventions is that if combined both aspects of his machines, he would have derived the principles on which later sewing machines were based.

As time passed, more corrections to the sewing machine were made for its best capability. The sewing machine was not being invented in the United States. The first ever sewing machine to be made in America was in 1818, by Rev. John Adams Dodge of Monkton from Vermont. This machine was developed and produced a satisfactory backstitch for only short distances.

Finally in 1830, the first functional sewing machine was invented by a French tailor, Barthelemy Thimonnier. Timonnier's invention used a hooked needle and only one thread that made the same chain stitch used with embroidery. Thimonnier's invention, however, angered many French tailors who feared for unemployment. By 1841, eight of his machines were making uniforms for the French Army. Unfortunately, Barthelemy Thimonnier was almost killed by an angered mob of tailors who burnt down his garment factory. Thimonnier managed to escape the destruction with one of his machines and escaped to England. Here he issued a patent a year later. Thimmonier perfected the first sewing machine made in commercial quantities and put them to practical use.

More action towards sewing machines were seen in the United States as time passed. In 1834, Walter Hunt built America's first somewhat successful sewing machine. Hunt never put a patent on his machine because he feared he would cause major unemployment. Maybe Hunt heard word about Thimonnier's incident at his factory. The first ever American patent to be issued for sewing machines was by Elias Howe. Howe invented a 'process that used thread from two different sources' (inventors.about.com, 4/16/2006). Howe contributed to the evolution of the sewing machine by creating a way of pushing a needle through cloth and creating a loop on the other side. Howe helped create what we now call the lockstitch. Elias Howe however struggled to protect his patent from imitators.

Isaac Merritt Singer name came into popularity in 1850 and still rings to this day in sewing machines. Singer invented the up-and-down motion mechanism in sewing machines. He also was the first to build a commercially successful machine, in 1850. Singer's change of the up-and-down motion from the side-to-side motion clearly set him apart from other inventions. Singer also incorporated the use of a foot treadle to power the sewing machine. Previous machines before Singer, were hand-cranked.

Elias Howe soon saw similarities from Singer's invention from his original creations. Isaac Singer's machine used the same lockstitch that Howe had patented. Elias Howe sued Isaac Singer for patent infringement and won in 1854 (ismacs.net,