Sewing machine

Though most people have seen and even worked with a sewing machine, the actual working has been a bit of a mystery. The working illustration should be a picture worth a thousand words. While at it, a brief history of it's development should be in order.

Click to see the rotary locking sewing mechanism working

In 1791 British inventor Thomas Saint was the first to patent a design for a sewing machine. A working model was never built. In 1814 an Austrian tailor, Josef Madersperger, presented his first sewing machine, the development of which started in 1807. In 1830 a French tailor, Barthélemy Thimonnier, patented a sewing machine that sewed straight seams using chain stitch. By 1841, Thimonnier had a factory of 80 machines sewing uniforms for the French Army. The factory was destroyed by rioting French tailors afraid of losing their livelihood. Thimonnier had no further success with his machine. The lockstitch sewing machine was invented by Walter Hunt in 1833. In 1842, John Greenough patented the first sewing machine in the United States.

Elias Howe, born in Spencer, Massachusetts, created his sewing machine in 1845, using a similar method to Hunt's, except the fabric was held vertically. The major improvement he made was to have the needle running away from the point, starting from the eye. After a lengthy stint in England trying to attract interest in his machine he returned to America to find various people infringing his patent. He eventually won his case in 1854 and was awarded the right to claim royalties from the manufacturers using ideas covered by his patent.

Isaac Merritt Singer has become synonymous with the modern day sewing machine. Trained as an engineer, he saw a rotary sewing machine being repaired in a Boston shop. He thought it to be clumsy and promptly set out to design a better one. His machine used a flying shuttle instead of a rotary one; the needle was mounted vertically and included a presser foot to hold the cloth in place. It had a fixed arm to hold the needle and included a basic tensioning system.

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