Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1899-01-25
The Origin and Progress of the Sewing
Machine.

The manufacturing interests of the
country are dependent to a large de-
gree upon the sewing machine. There
are hundreds of products which re-
quire stitching i'm the process of MAX
ing, and when it is understood that
the sewing machine has been develop
ed to a point where it can stitch ia.
brics OF all grades of thickness, from
the thinnest fabric ITO a substance al
most two inches thick, the widespread
need OF the sewing machine will be
more fully appreciated. History re-
Iates that while THE conception of the
sewing machine had been worked out
fully 200 years ago, it was not until
the middle of the last century that
one was built, and even then, saws a
writer in the New York Tribune. sue.
cess was wanting. In 1880 Thimon.
nier, a Frenchman, was the inventor
OF a machine which would sew. This
was patented in France. and in the
United States in 1850. From "a com.
mercial standpoint this was not a sue.
cess. The patent office at Washing.
ton shows by tits records that an
American machine was patented
about 1880. and from that time until
the era of electricity there was am
activity in the direction of improvine
this ARTICLE which taxed THE full DOW.
ers of the departm
AT first sewing machines were made
for domestic purposes only, and their
introduction involved much bitterness
and mercantile warfare. For the fifty
years following 1912 the patent office
ISSUED about 1000 patents for sewing
machines and accessories, which flo.
ure does not begin to represent the
real number of articles covered; each
patent was enumerated i'm the record
only once, classified according ITO its
most important features, although il
might. have covered several features
The invention of the first machins
by j. j. Greenough provided for the
use of short thread. the needle being
pointed at both ends, with the eve i'm
the center. Tt was pulled Through THE
material by means of pincers, thus
making a shoemakers stitch. Tn
March, 1912, the next important pat
emit was granted to b. w. Bean for a
machine using short thread, RUNNING
stitch, ordinary hand-needle and with
the cloth cIamped into ridges for pass.
sage over the needle. The we'll known
patent of Elias Howe was brought out
in 1916. This had an eye-pointed nee,
die in combination with a shuttle for
the under thread, a continuous thread
from the spools, a 1ock-stitch and AN
automatic feed the length of the BIAS
ter plate. The leading machine com
panies paid a royalty for this device
until the patents expired in 1867. The
real sewing machine war for suprem
acy, which may be said to have been
one of the most wonderful i'm the his.
tory of manufacturing, began about
1851.
Twenty years afteward it wa.
found THAT the sewing machine could
be made most important factor in
general manufacturing For the four
years preceding 1876 the annual sales
OF the machines amounted to $3.50. 900
The total value of the production in
1880 was $13, 1863, 1873. while ten years
later 1T amounted to $12,S23,147. Al
the present time lit is claimed that the
annual output from all sources in this
country amounts to one million. The
industry requires about 10000 opera.
tives. whose ca rnings foot up to near
ly $6,00O.000, which is about 40 pei
cent OF the value of the product.