June 3, 2011

Fruity Fact Friday- Sew Interesting Edition

What would we crafters do without our sewing machines?! 
Oh right....
Sew by hand.  
hmm.
But that's not as fun, so here's a little tid bit tribute to the man who enables us to whip a stitch in seconds and lets us sew to our hearts content!                                                                                                     Enjoy!

A German named Charles Wiesenthal who lived in England got patented the needle that he designed for sewing machine in 1755. It was in 1790 Thomas Saint, who was an English inventor and a maker of cabinets got a copyright for a sewing machine as a whole. This machine was designed to sew leather but it could not produce results and failed. Though Balthazar Krems invented an automated sewing machine to sew caps in 1810 but he did not get it patented. There were few unsuccessful tries too. In 1814 Josef Madersperger was able to get patent for his unsuccessful machine. Thomas Stone and James Henderson got French patent for their machine and Scott John Duncans for his embroidery machine in 1804 but both machines were a great failure.
The French tailor Barthelemy Thimonnier invented the first sewing machine that could function in 1830. The machine used a single thread and a needle which was hooked. The other tailors burnt his shop and almost killed him as they thought the new invention might bring unemployment.
It was in 1834 that America’s first successful machine came up and the man behind this was Walter Hunt who took no interest in getting a patent for it due to the fear that it might cause unemployment. It was in 1846 that Elias Howe got the first American patent for a sewing machine that had one pointed eye and accepted thread from two sources.
The mass production of machines started in 1850 when Isaac Singer invented the machine that was commercially successful.
It's good to know that sometimes you don't succeed at first, sew try, try again! {hehe-a little sewing humor there for your SEW beautiful Friday!} 
Crazy how they've evolved from a single needle and thread to this behemoth?!  (*aka*- the dream machine)

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3 comments:

  1. Love it! I didn't realize how many people had attempted making a sewing machine before. Here's my dream machine http://sew-ciety.com/sewing-products/designer-diamond-deluxe-sewing-machine.html

    ReplyDelete
  2. oooh that is {trulie} scrumptious!! Love it!

    ReplyDelete

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