FIRST SEWING MACHINE WAS INVENTED IN 1750.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17881, 24 June 1926, Page 10

FIRST SEWING MACHINE WAS INVENTED IN 1750.

Tn his “Seven Wonders of the Modern World,” Kent says that a London mechanic of German origin, named Weisenthal, patented on June. 24, 1750. an embroidering machine. It used j needles pointed at each end and with j an eye in the middle, and a thread \ carrier employed in a clever manner. This appears to have been the first invention of a mechanism to take place of the hand and neeefie, or, at least, is the first recorded attempt. In 1790. Thomas Saint, an Englishman. invented a machine to stitch on ( leather. It embodied many of the features of the modern sewing machine. It was constructed with an upright post, with an overhanging arm at right angles. The needle, with an awl parallel to it, descended vertically, and the awl, proceeding in advance of the needle, pierced a tiny hole in the lea ther. The. needle, notched at the lower end. thrust the thread through the material, leaving a small loop which was interchained with the preceding stitch. The thread was tightened m the material by means of a spindle, which reached down from the protruding beam at a point midway between the thread spool and the needle. Ihu invention was lost for more than two j generations. ~n ianl We next find that on May J^ 4, W.terp patent were granted to jonn Duncan for a much less comprehensive machine, and later to James Winte for improvements on sewing machinery. In 1830 a Frenchman, named

Thimmonier, invented a chain stitch machine. Ten years later he had eighty machines making uniforms for soldiers, but angry journeymen tailors destroyed the machines and models, and Thimmonier barely escaped with his life. He made a second attempt, and was again successful in assembling a working model, but it was destroj ed by another mob. and he died a few years later, heart-broken and penniless. To Thimmonier belongs the distinction of having produced the first machine whose sole purpose was that of sewing garments, and, for the production of the use of tlie pressor foot.