Throwback Thursday - History of the Sewing Machine

hello there it's time for another throwback thursday my name's julia and i'm one of the historical interpreters with three rivers park district today i'm here at the landing and i've been relaxing on the porch of one of my favorite old buildings in this park this is our dressmaker's shop but i haven't been just relaxing i've actually been doing a little hand sewing and i've been putting all these little buttons down the sleeve of what's going to become my new 1800s ladies summer linen dress one of the best parts of my job is that i get to dress up in these elaborate clothes that they used to wear back in that time now i've been doing some hand sewing but in the late 1800s most dressmakers would be stitching with that wonderful invention the sewing machine and i thought it would be fun for throwback thursday for us to explore the dressmakers shop here behind me and learn about the invention of the sewing machine let's go inside so you'll notice i've changed but i just feel more at home inside this building when i'm dressed appropriately come on inside so what i have in front of me here is a lovely antique sewing machine i really like this one because it's totally functional and it actually came to us with the original owner's manual now this machine is a model that was marketed by sears roebuck company and it was sold in the early 1900s so we'll open this up and take a look and one of the things i like about this machine is this self-raising mechanism that properly sets the machine into place now this machine looks pretty similar in shape and size to a lot of even modern sewing machines and they all have some things in common there are actually 10 basic elements that make up a sewing machine however it took about a hundred years for different inventors to come up with each of those 10 elements so what we're going to do is the little timeline that shows when the thing was invented and how it added to this finished product hand sewing needles with a hole or the eye at the top have been around for thousands of years weizenthal received his patent for a needle with the eye at the bottom pointy end and he called it a device for a mechanical machine nothing much came of it at the time because the mechanical sewing machine was still just a dream this french tailor and inventor patented an industrial size sewing machine in 1830 it contained a number of the essential elements still found in our modern machines he's recognized as the first person to use a sewing machine for commercial profit his shop with 80 machines produced military uniforms for the french army unfortunately in 1841 his shop was burned to the ground by an angry mob that feared his machines were putting tailors out of business the moliere's machine sewed with a chain stitch a needle pushes a single thread through the fabric where it is caught by a device called a looper each new needle stitch down catches the loop of the previous stitch it's not a real durable stitch but we still see this type of stitching on large bags of dog food or charcoal briquettes for your barbecue grill anything that says across the top pulls string to open is a chain stitch up until the 1840s most attempts at creating the sewing machine were based on the idea of recreating the motions of a human hand one hand one needle one single thread a huge conceptual leap would take place in 1844 when two british men named fisher and gibbons were looking for a way to make lace on fabric they used an eye pointed needle to push a top thread through the fabric and a shuttle underneath with a separate thread to catch it this revelation is what led to the system used on all future sewing machines a top thread combined with a moving shuttle and a separate bobbin thread underneath fisher and gibbons never intended to invent a sewing machine but their discovery made a whole lot more people anxious to try in 1843 elias howe was working in a machine shop in boston as an apprentice he had dreams of achieving great wealth if he could create a practical sewing machine and so he tinkered for three years using the equipment in the machine shop and in 1846 applied for and received an american patent his machine incorporated three of the essential components of our sewing machine he had the eye pointed needle he had a second thread with a shuttle to carry it and the ability to create a lock stitch howe's machine was a feat of engineering and the model submitted for his patent is acknowledged to be one of the most beautiful ever presented to the patent office most of us today would be really puzzled with houzz first machine his eye pointed needle was curved and placed horizontally and the fabric was guided vertically through the machine unfortunately american manufacturers were skeptical of the costs of producing house machine consumers were flabbergasted by what they might have to pay for it so howe sets off to england for three years attempting to peddle his invention to british tailors he returns even poorer than before he left but while he was gone americans kept tinkering so right here i need to pause and include an important fact about our u.s patent system you can invent something that has never been invented before and receive a patent for it or you can invent something that is considered an improvement to somebody else's patented device and you also get a new patent and just because you have invented something you may never actually be involved in the actual manufacturing of it it takes a lot of capital a fancy word for money to produce and sell a real working version of your invention many inventors will attempt to make a quick buck by simply selling the rights to their patent to someone else i want you to keep these things in mind as we approach the final stages of the ultimate sewing machine improvement patents abound in america between 1848 and 1850. bradshaw improves houzz machine with a new cloth holder he gives us element number eight what will become our modern presser foot bock elder improves the machine with a feed mechanism to move the cloth element number 9 will become what we call the feed dogs on our modern machines blodgett adds his improvement of a revolving shuttle for the bobbin he produces a hundred and twenty of his machines for new york tailor chops allen b wilson patents his version of a double pointed shuttle in 1850 he and his partner established the wheeler wilson sewing machine manufacturing plant within a year improvements were fast and furious and we are right on the edge of success one final inventor will step forward in 1850 to put on the finishing touches and become the driving force behind the sewing machine industry can you guess who it is isaac merritt singer singer took on the challenge of improving the blodget machines in the new york tailor shops he never claimed he invented the sewing machine and his document of 1850 confirms it was all about improvements on existing machines singer's biggest hurdle was getting nice tight stitches and he solved this by creating our final element number 10 the thread tension adjustment this let his machine sew perfect straight and curved lines he received his patent for a fully functional machine in september of 1850 and it was an amazing thing compare this a seamstress that was trained could sew 40 stitches per minute by hand elias house sewing machine produced 250 per minute but singer's machine could produce an amazing 900 stitches per minute it was an instant success

Channel: Three Rivers Parks

Views: 2,041

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Id: ldhdGEEqlUo

Length: 11min 17sec (677 seconds)

Published: Thu May 28 2020