or small hooked needle soon became known as a 

 tambour needle. 



In 1755 a new type of needle was invented for 

 producing embroidery stitches. This needle had to 

 pass completely through the fabric two times (a 

 through-and-through motion) for every stitch. The 

 inventor was Charles F. Weisenthal, a German 

 mechanic living in London who was granted British 

 patent 701 for a two-pointed needle (fig. 4). The 

 invention was described in the patent as follows: 



The muslin, being put into a frame, is to be worked 

 with a needle that has two points, one at the head, and 

 the other point as a common needle, which is to be 

 worked by holding it with the fingers in the middle, 

 so as not to require turning. 



It might be argued that Weisenthal had invented the 

 eye-pointed needle, since he was the first inventor 

 to put a point at the end of the needle having the eye. 

 But, since his specifically stated use required the needle 

 to have two points and to be passed completely 

 through the fabric, Weisenthal had no intention of 

 utilizing the very important advantage that the eye- 

 pointed needle provided, that of not requiring the 

 passage of the needle through the fabric as in hand 

 sewing. 



While no records can be found to establish that 

 Weisenthal's patent was put to any commercial use 

 during the inventor's lifetime, the two-pointed needle 

 with eye at midpoint appeared in several 19th-century 

 sewing-machine inventions. 



The earliest of the known mechanical sewing devices 

 produced a chain or tambour stitch, but by an entirely 

 different principle than that used with either needle 

 just described. Although the idea was incorporated 

 into a patent, the machine was entirely overlooked 

 for almost a century as the patent itself was classed 

 under w-earing apparel. It was entitled "An Entire 

 New Method of Making and Completing Shoes, 

 Boots, Splatterdashes, Clogs, and Other Articles, by 

 Means of Tools and Machines also Invented by Me 

 for that Purpose, and of Certain Compositions of the 

 Nature of Japan or Varnish, which will be very 

 advantageous in many useful Applications." This 

 portentously titled British patent 1,764 was issued to 

 an English cabinetmaker, Thomas Saint, on July 1 7, 

 1 790. Along with accounts of several processes for 

 making various varnish compositions, the patent con- 

 tains descriptions of three separate machines; the 

 second of these was for "stitching, quilting, or sewing."' 

 Though far from practical, the machine incorporated 



&f 



Figure 2. — Primitive needle. Bronze. Egyptian (Ro- 

 man period, 30 B.C.-A.D. 642). (Smithsonian 

 photo 1379-A.) 



several features common to a modern sewing machine. 

 It had a horizontal cloth plate or table, an over- 

 hanging arm carrying a straight needle, and a con- 

 tinuous supply of thread from a spool. The motion 

 was derived from the rotation of a hand crank on a 

 shaft, which activated cams that produced all the 

 actions of the machine. 



One cam operated the forked needle (fig. 5) that 

 pushed the thread through a hole made by a preceding 

 thrust of the awl. The thread was caught by a looper 

 and detained so that it then became enchained in the 

 next loop of thread. The patent described thread 

 tighteners above and below the work and an adjust- 

 ment to vary the stitches for different kinds of material. 

 Other than the British patent records, no contempo- 

 rary reference to Saint's machine has ever been found. 

 The stitching-machine contents of this patent was 

 happened on by accident in 1873. 5 Using the patent 

 description, a Newton Wilson of London attempted 

 to build a model of Saint's machine in 1874. 6 Wilson 

 found, however, that it was necessary to modify the 

 construction before the machine would stitch at all. 



s Sewing Machine News (1880), vol. 1 , no. 7, p. 2. 

 6 This model of Saint's machine was bequeathed by Mr. 

 Wilson to the South Kensington Museum, London, England. 



