Cue the Industrial Revolution in the 18th Century, where the need to decrease manual sewing in factories became paramount. Englishman Thomas Saint designed the first sewing machine of its kind. The patent described a machine powered with a hand crank to be used for leather and canvas. Nobody knows if Saint built a prototype, but in , William Newton Wilson found the patent drawings.
They were so detailed, he built a replica, proving that it did work. Barthelemy Thimonnier, a French tailor, invented a sewing machine that used a hooked needle and one thread, creating a chain stitch. His job was to create uniforms for the French Army. They feared his machine would result in their unemployment so they burnt down his factory whilst he was still inside.
Never take your sewing machine for granted ever again; this guy almost died for it. This is an example of sticking true to your beliefs. Now you see where things are going to get messy. In , English inventor John Fisher designed a sewing machine that would eliminate this disparity between the moving parts.
However, a botched filing job at the Patent Office resulted in his patent getting lost, so he never received any recognition. It went through the fabric creating a loop on the reverse, a shuttle on a track that slipped the second thread through the loop, creating what is called the lockstitch. He struggled to market his design, so he took the plunge and sailed to England.
After a lengthy stay, he returned to his motherland only to find others had copied his lockstitch mechanism. One of those was an Isaac Merritt Singer. Isaac Merritt Singer is one of the most well-known sewing machine manufacturers, building an empire that is still going today.
His iconic Singer sewing machines are beautifully ornate and somewhat legendary. He developed the first version of our modern day sewing machine, with a foot pedal and the up-and-down needle. Elements from the Howe, Hunt and Thimonnier inventions inspired Singer, causing Howe to file a lawsuit. Elias Howe took Singer to court for Patent Infringement, where he defended his case and won. Consequently, Singer was forced to pay a lump sum of patent royalties to Howe, as well as giving him a share in the I.
Despite all the allegations, drama and legal disputes, Howe and Singer both died multimillionaires , and each of these pioneering inventors gave the world the sewing machine. He attempted to start over in England but his efforts were for naught. But what was going on across the pond? What was going on in that upstart nation of go-getters, problem solvers, and destiny manifesters? A clever man who was attuned to the tenor of the times, Hunt understood the value of a machine that could sew and set out to built one in But Hunt had second thoughts.
He was dismayed by the prospect that his invention might put seamstresses and tailors out of work, so he abandoned his machine in having never filed for a patent. He earned a patent for his design in and staged a man-vs-machine challenge, beating five seamstresses with work that was faster and in every way superior. Yet the machine was still seen as somewhat scandalous, and Howe failed to attract any buyers or investors.
Undeterred, he continued to improve his machine. A series of unfortunate business decisions, treacherous partners, and a trip oversees left Howe destitute in London. He was very close to suffering the same fate that befell Thimonnier, becoming just another dead inventor in the poorhouse.
After pawning his machines and patent papers to pay for steerage back to the States in , the distraught Howe returned to his wife just in time to stand by her bedside as she died. The first eyed needles appeared in the 15th century. The first possible patent connected to mechanical sewing was a British patent issued to German, Charles Weisenthal.
Weisenthal was issued a patent for a needle that was designed for a machine. However, the patent did not describe the rest of the machine. It is unknown whether a machine existed.
The English inventor and cabinet maker, Thomas Saint was issued the first patent for a complete machine for sewing in It is not known if Saint built a working prototype of his invention. The patent describes an awl that punched a hole in leather and passed a needle through the hole.
A later reproduction of Saint's invention based on his patent drawings did not work. In , German, Balthasar Krems invented the automatic machine for sewing caps. Krems did not patent his invention, and it never functioned well. Austrian tailor, Josef Madersperger made several attempts at inventing the machine for sewing and was issued a patent in All of his efforts were considered unsuccessful. In , a French patent was granted to Thomas Stone and James Henderson for "a machine that emulated hand sewing.
Their machine failed to sew any useful amount of fabric before malfunctioning. The first functional sewing machine was invented by the French tailor, Barthelemy Thimonnier, in Thimonnier's machine used only one thread and a hooked needle that made the same chain stitch used with embroidery.
The inventor was almost killed by an enraged group of French tailors who burned down his garment factory because they feared unemployment as a result of his sewing machine invention. In , Walter Hunt built America's first somewhat successful sewing machine. He later lost interest in patenting because he believed his invention would cause unemployment. Hunt's machine could only sew straight steams.
Hunt never patented and in , the first American patent was issued to Elias Howe for "a process that used thread from two different sources. Elias Howe's machine had a needle with an eye at the point.
The needle was pushed through the cloth and created a loop on the other side; a shuttle on a track then slipped the second thread through the loop, creating what is called the lockstitch.
However, Elias Howe later encountered problems defending his patent and marketing his invention. For the next nine years, Elias Howe struggled, first to enlist interest in his machine, then to protect his patent from imitators. His lockstitch mechanism was adopted by others who were developing innovations of their own.
Isaac Singer invented the up-and-down motion mechanism, and Allen Wilson developed a rotary hook shuttle. Sewing machines did not go into mass production until the s when Isaac Singer built the first commercially successful machine. Singer built the first sewing machine where the needle moved up and down rather than the side-to-side, and a foot treadle powered the needle.
Previous machines were all hand-cranked. However, Isaac Singer's machine used the same lockstitch that Howe had patented. Elias Howe sued Isaac Singer for patent infringement and won in Walter Hunt's sewing machine also used a lockstitch with two spools of thread and an eye-pointed needle; however, the courts upheld Howe's patent since Hunt had abandoned his patent.
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