The History of the Singer Sewing Machine
| The Singer Sewing Machine | Historical Project Research | | Sarah Clark | 9/12/2010 |
Engineering 1000
Instructor: Dr. Tzu-Yu Wang |
The sewing machine is basically a textile machine. It is used for stitching together things such as fabric, paper, card, or other material with some type of thread. The sewing machine needed to be something that was functional and compact. It would need to be something that was simple to use and be able to sew faster and more efficiently then hand sewing was. Up until the time that the sewing machine was invented, women would spend great amounts of time sewing. Women would have to hand sew everything, clothing for themselves and their families as well as household items. Women also formed the majority of the labor force that sewed clothes in factories and wove fabrics in mils. The invention of the sewing machine essentially liberated these women from spending many hours a day sewing. The first patent related to the sewing machine was for the double pointed needle. In 1775 Charles F. Weisenthal, a German mechanic, was granted the patent for this needle. The patent itself described a needed for use in a machine, but did not elaborate on what the machine looked like or if one even existed. The patent itself was never put to use during Weisenthal’s lifetime. There were several attempts at creating a sewing machine. In 1790, the first workable sewing machine was invented and patented by a British inventor named Thomas Saint. This machine never made it past the patent model stage. In 1830, Barthelemy Thimonnier, a French tailor, got a patent for the first practical, sewing machine. By 1841, almost 100 of his machines were being used, in a factory, to sew uniforms for the French army. Walter Hunt, the inventor of the safety pin, had an idea for a double-thread sewing machine. Sometime in 1834, he devised a machine that used an eye-pointed needle in conjunction with a shuttle carrying a second
Engineering 1000
Instructor: Dr. Tzu-Yu Wang |
The sewing machine is basically a textile machine. It is used for stitching together things such as fabric, paper, card, or other material with some type of thread. The sewing machine needed to be something that was functional and compact. It would need to be something that was simple to use and be able to sew faster and more efficiently then hand sewing was. Up until the time that the sewing machine was invented, women would spend great amounts of time sewing. Women would have to hand sew everything, clothing for themselves and their families as well as household items. Women also formed the majority of the labor force that sewed clothes in factories and wove fabrics in mils. The invention of the sewing machine essentially liberated these women from spending many hours a day sewing. The first patent related to the sewing machine was for the double pointed needle. In 1775 Charles F. Weisenthal, a German mechanic, was granted the patent for this needle. The patent itself described a needed for use in a machine, but did not elaborate on what the machine looked like or if one even existed. The patent itself was never put to use during Weisenthal’s lifetime. There were several attempts at creating a sewing machine. In 1790, the first workable sewing machine was invented and patented by a British inventor named Thomas Saint. This machine never made it past the patent model stage. In 1830, Barthelemy Thimonnier, a French tailor, got a patent for the first practical, sewing machine. By 1841, almost 100 of his machines were being used, in a factory, to sew uniforms for the French army. Walter Hunt, the inventor of the safety pin, had an idea for a double-thread sewing machine. Sometime in 1834, he devised a machine that used an eye-pointed needle in conjunction with a shuttle carrying a second
Cited: Alef, Daniel. Isaac Merritt Singer: Sewing Machines and Sewing Seeds. Santa Barbara: Meta4, 2007. E-Book. Cooper, Grace Rogers. The Invention of the Sewing Machine. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1968. E-Book. Cooper, Grace Rogers. The Sewing Machine: Its Invention and Early Development. Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1976. Print. "SINGER® SEWING CO. | Company Information." SINGER® SEWING CO. | Home. Web. 14 Sept. 2010. <http://www.singerco.com/company/>. "Sewing Machines." Machine-History.Com. Web. 14 Sept. 2010. <http://www.machine-history.com/THE SEWING MACHINE>.