The Iowa transcript. (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1858-1866, 1866-03-14

ton much nearer home to very many Of the
readers Of this article-the sewing machine
than which, probably, there cannot be
found . more comprehensive type Of the
progress Of the last few years, and Of the
unerring certainty with which machinery
devoted to certain beneficial purpose car
ries the inventor $50 to speak) off his feet,
and confounds all his calculations.
1t is not many years ago that there was
talk of the sewing machine as q thing not
quite accomplished, but about to be-a little
further back than the type-setting machine
is at the present day. Almost any expert
needlewoman Tor needle-man) could demon
strate in few minutes that nothing effec-
tive Of the kind could ever be arranged,
simply because the necessity of the needle
going through the cloth and returning be-
fore stitch could be- formed, made the
thing n bald imposMbility. How could it
be made to go through and return, repeat
eddy and rapidly, and the thread still be
kept in the eye of 1T" they asked and that
query seemed to be puzzler. "Psiaw+
another of the Utopian dreams of idle people
who wish to live by their wits while others
labor with their hands +" was the verdict.
BY and by Mr.. Howe and certain others
answered that puzzling question. The
how, everybody understands nowadays,
and there is no occasion of explaining here.
Then the cry changed, but it did not die
out. Humph yes, it may do we'll enough
| sometimes, and slowly; but it can never be
speedy and reliable!" Everybody was
certain of this, if they had never before
been certain Of anything in their lives.
After time it was demonstrated that one
sewing-machine would do work with the
CELEBRITY of as many sewing-women as could
| be set around it in . twenty-foot circle.
Did the croaking stop then By no means
1t only changed again. "Humph it may
work rapidly, but it can never do work that
will stand 1t can never do anything but
plain, coarse work-never sew any seams
but those that run nearly straight ahead !.
It will always be getting out of order, from
the complication Of the machinery, and
costing more time and trouble for repairs
and alterations than would do the work by
hand!
There pas something in some Of the latter
prophesies, it must be admitted, taking the
scale Of perfection that had then been
reached as the test. But no sooner had it
been demonstrated that sewing could be
done by machinery than host of inventors
appeared with devices to overcome the vari-
Gus objections, and in short time the COM
paratively crude idea of Howe, by the addi-
ton Of these inventions, assumed the form
of a really practical sewing machine. The
difficulty of sewing curved seams disap-
peared before the feeding" inventions.
contrivanccs innumerable regulated the
thread tensions; attachments for hemming,
tuckinq, cording, braiding, etc., were added
soon after; and the question then was not,
could the machine sew! but was there any
description of sewing which it could not
perform? Take the Grover & Baker ma
chine at the present day, which affords,
perhaps, the best illustration of the advances
made in this branch of the mechanical arts,
and there is no kind Of sewing, plain or or
namental, which the most skilled needle
woman can perform that it will not execute
equally well as regards strength and dura-
bility, much neater and more beautiful in
appearance, and in tenth Of the time.
| Truly, we do not know everything of
what we are going to do when we first be-
gin. Machinery, which begun by being the
servant and owes its very life to the invent
i've brain, literally forces improvements
upon itself, by its suggestions, and comes
very near, in the end, to being the master.
But it is doubtful whether either of the
other instances named Ito which dozen
might be added, in the telegraph, etc., sup
plies SO conclusive q comment on the whole
theme as is found in the various steps OF
the sewing machine from crudity to all
needful perfection, with the changes in 20
pular appreciation accompanying. begin.
ming with total distrust and ending in an
unreserved urrender of confidence.-Ame-
r5can artisan.