Editing Sewing machine (section)

=== Invention ===

[[Charles Fredrick Wiesenthal]], a German-born engineer working in England, was awarded the first British patent for a mechanical device to aid the art of sewing, in 1755. His invention consisted of a double pointed needle with an eye at one end.<ref name="sewing">{{Cite web |url=http://indecohotels.com/sewingmachinebeginning.html |title=Sewing Machine Beginning |access-date=2012-12-17 |work=Sewing |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141220075439/http://indecohotels.com/sewingmachinebeginning.html |archive-date=2014-12-20 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

[[File:Thomas Saint first sewing machine 1790.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.2|The first sewing machine, invented by Thomas Saint, London, 1790.]]

In 1790, the English inventor Thomas Saint invented the first sewing machine design.<ref name="The Servant in the House: A Brief History of the Sewing Machine">{{cite journal |last1=Lewton |first1=Frederick Lewis |title=The Servant in the House: A Brief History of the Sewing Machine |journal=The Smithsonian Report for 1929 |date=1930 |volume=3056 |pages=559–583 |url=https://www.sil.si.edu/DigitalCollections/hst/lewton/intro.htm |access-date=14 January 2022}}</ref> His machine was meant to be used on [[leather]] and [[canvas]] material. It is likely that Saint had a working model, but there is no surviving evidence of one. He was a skilled [[cabinet maker]] and his device included many practical and functional features: an overhanging arm; a feed mechanism (adequate for short lengths of leather); a vertical needle bar; and a looper. Saint created the machine to reduce the amount of hand-stitching on garments, making sewing more reliable and functional.{{citation needed| date = May 2025}}

His sewing machine used the [[chain stitch]] method, in which the machine uses a single thread to make simple stitches in the fabric. A [[stitching awl]] would have pierced the material, and a forked-point rod would have carried the thread through the hole, where it would have been hooked underneath and moved to the next stitching place, after which the cycle would be repeated, thereby locking the stitch in place.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.husqvarnastudio.co.uk/history.htm|title=Sewing Machine History|access-date=2013-12-17|archive-date=2012-10-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121014195146/http://husqvarnastudio.co.uk/history.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> Saint's machine was designed to aid in the manufacturing of various leather goods, including [[saddle]]s and [[bridle]]s, but it was also capable of working with canvas, and was used for sewing [[sail|ship sails]]. Although his machine was very advanced for the era, the concept would need steady improvement over the coming decades before it was practical enough to enter into wide use. In 1874, a sewing machine manufacturer, William Newton Wilson, found Saint's drawings in the [[Intellectual Property Office (United Kingdom)|UK Patent Office]], made adjustments to the looper, and built a working machine, currently owned by the [[Science Museum, London|Science Museum in London]].{{citation needed| date = May 2025}}

In 1804, a sewing machine was built by two Englishmen, Thomas Stone and James Henderson, and a machine for embroidering was constructed by John Duncan in Scotland.<ref>{{cite web | last=Owuor | first=Sophy | title=Who Invented the Sewing Machine? | website=WorldAtlas | date=November 21, 2019 | url=https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/who-invented-the-sewing-machine.html | access-date=March 27, 2021}}</ref> An Austrian tailor, [[Josef Madersperger]], began developing his first sewing machine in 1807 and presented his first working machine publicly in 1814. Having received financial support from his government, the Austrian tailor worked on the development of his machine until 1839, when he built a machine imitating the weaving process using the chain stitch.{{citation needed| date = May 2025}}

The first practical and widely used sewing machine was invented by [[Barthélemy Thimonnier]], a French tailor, in 1829. His machine sewed straight seams using a chain stitch like Saint's model had, and in 1830, he signed a contract with Auguste Ferrand, a [[mining engineer]], who made the requisite drawings and submitted a patent application. The [[patent]] for his machine was issued on 17 July 1830, and in the same year, he and his partners opened the first machine-based clothing manufacturing company in the world to create army uniforms for the [[French Army]]. However, the [[factory]] was burned down, reportedly by workers fearful of losing their livelihood, following the issuing of the patent.<ref name="Thimonnier">[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/536932/sewing-machine "Sewing machine"]. ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2011. Accessed 31 December 2011.</ref> A model of the machine is exhibited in London at the [[Science Museum, London|Science Museum]]. The machine is made of wood and uses a barbed needle which passes downward through the cloth to grab the thread and pull it up to form a loop to be locked by the next loop.{{citation needed| date = May 2025}}

{{ multiple image
| image1   = Elias Howe sewing machine.png
| caption1 = [[Elias Howe]]'s lockstitch machine, invented in 1845
| image2   = W&w8d.jpg
| caption2 = An 1880 hand-cranked machine from the Wheeler and Wilson Company
| image3   = Máquina de Costura- lado a- Museu da Capitania de Ilhéus.jpg
| caption3 = Sewing Machine from the Everyday Collection of the Museu da Capitania de Ilhéus
| image4   = Jonescs.jpg
| caption4 = Jones Family CS machine from around 1935
}}

The first American [[lockstitch]] sewing machine was invented by [[Walter Hunt (inventor)|Walter Hunt]] in 1832.<ref>[http://www.ismacs.net/sewing_machine_history.html A Brief History of the Sewing Machine<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> His machine used a needle with the eye and the point on the same end carrying the upper thread, and a falling shuttle carrying the lower thread. The curved needle moved through the fabric horizontally, leaving the loop as it withdrew. The shuttle passed through the loop, interlocking the thread. The feed was unreliable, requiring the machine to be stopped frequently and reset up. Hunt eventually lost interest in his machine and sold individual machines without bothering to patent his invention, and only patenting it at a late date of 1854. In 1842, John Greenough patented the first sewing machine in the United States. The British partners Newton and Archibold introduced the eye-pointed needle and the use of two pressing surfaces to keep the pieces of fabric in position, in 1841.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ismacs.net/howe/case_against_elias_howe.html |title=Case Against Howe|access-date=2013-12-17|author=Forsdyke, Graham}}</ref>

The first machine to combine all the disparate elements of the previous half-century of innovation into the modern sewing machine was the device built by English inventor John Fisher in 1844, a little earlier than the very similar machines built by [[Isaac Merritt Singer]] in 1851, and the lesser known [[Elias Howe]], in 1845. However, due to the botched filing of Fisher's patent at the Patent Office, he did not receive due recognition for the modern sewing machine in the legal disputations of priority with Singer, and Singer reaped the benefits of the patent.{{citation needed| date = May 2025}}{{tone inline|date=May 2025}}