Sewing+Machines

. __Sewing Machines__
a sewing machine is used to stitch fabric or card together. But what was the first sewing machine and who invented it?

__**Inventor**__
It took a long time before seing machines were as advanced as they are today. there was lots of attempts at inventing a sewing machine, so its unclear who actually invented the first fully functioning one. Some possible candidates are: The first ever machine that used a foot peddle instead of a hand crank was invented by Isaac Singer, in 1850. he was the first inventor to sell sewing machines commercially. his sewing machine needle moved up and down, not side to side like previous inventions. but his machine used the lockstitch that had already been patented by Elias Howe in 1846. Elias sued Isaac and won the case in 1854, and Isaac had to pay patent royalties but he had still made lots of money.
 * In 1842 John Grenough was the first to patent a sewing machine in America
 * Australian tailor Josef Mardesperger made several attempt to create a sewing machine in 1814, but they were all considered unsuccessful.
 * Elias Howe born in Spencer, Massachusetts, invented a sewing machine similar to John Grenoughs in 1845, but the fabric was held vertically not horizontally. He went to England after patenting it to try and get interest, but returned to America when he found out that people were infringing his patent.
 * The first American lockstitch machine was made by inventor Walter Hunt in 1832 his machine used an eye point needle (a needle with the eye and the point at the same end) but he eventually became bored of it and sol it without bothering to take out a patent.
 * British cabinet maker Thomos Saint patented a sewing machine for sewing leather in 1790, but when his patent draing were made into a sewing machine, it did not work.
 * Charles Weisenthal patented a needle for a sewing machine, but an actual sewing machine for this needle to go in was never mentioned in his patent.
 * But the first recognised sewing machine was made by a french tailor called Barthelemey Thimonnier, in 1830. This machine only used on thread though, and did not have a bobbin thread. it made the same chain stitch that is used in embroidery. But he was nearly killed by a group of rioting tailors who believed his machine would destroy thier jobs and livelihood.

__**What life was like before the sewing machine**__
before the sewing machine was invented all sewing had to be done by hand. Every sttitch had to labouriously done, and this took a long long time! the stitch were also not as strong as the modern day sewing machine. ths meant that even a skilled tailor would take at least 2 days just to sew a simple shirt. So as you can imagine it was more expensive because of the time it took to sew a garment.

__After the sewing machine__
But now that sewing machines exist, the tailors shop has almost completely dissapeared, because commercial garments are much cheaper, so the sewing machine caused many people to lose their jobs. Although this has happened, sewing machines make prvioulsly time consuming jobs easy and fast. They are strong and simple to use, but equally you can get complicated ones that do lots of work that used to have to be done by hand for example, you can get seing machines that automatically embroider a pattern. Wheras before every stitch had to be done by hand, and as you can imagine this took ages.



__The machines__
On treadle sewing machines, the treadle (which is foot powered) spins around a wheel, which in turn make the needle go up and down. On a hand crank machine you had to use your hand to spin around the crank, which spun the wheel, leaving only one hand free to direct the fabric and an acheing wrist! On modern sewing machines it is completly different, they are powered by electricity, and the foot treadle is only used to decide the speed. They use a lock stitch different from the one originally invented by Elias Howe.
 * There are many other machines based on the sewing machine. You can even get a machine that knits socks!**

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 * By Lyneth Allen**
 * Info from**